Discover silent witnesses of ancient times
Guttaring stands at the bottom of a primeval sea. Small, round stones, popularly known as “stone lentils”, bear witness to this. Amateur geologists are welcome to collect them. And help lift an old curse at the same time.
It’s hard to imagine that you are actually wading in the middle of the primeval sea near the center of Guttaring: here, on a gently sloping hillside, there are small, uniformly round stones that were alive around 60 million years ago. They are fossilized single-celled organisms from the ocean that once flowed here. After it dried up, they were deposited in the ground as a layer of limestone and marl. In Guttaring, the mini fossils (also known as nummulites) come to light on the surface. And because their shape is strikingly reminiscent of them, they are called “stone lentils”. A perfect adventure site for hobby geologists. And easy to reach! (see directions below)
Of course, the strange little stones were already a huge topic in the village centuries ago. Back then, however, they were explained differently. A wicked farmer once refused to make a pilgrimage up to St. Gertrude’s Church on St. Gertrude’s Day (which, incidentally, is a lovely place to walk from the field of the stone lentils – with a great view at the end). Instead, the farmer went to his field and sowed lentils. Summer came and the lentil seeds flourished everywhere, except in the lentil farmer’s field. When he checked, all he found were petrified lentils. And at that moment, he himself turned to stone.
Fortunately, there is a way to redeem the poor man at some point. You have to go to his field and collect the lentils. Only when all the round stones have been “harvested” will the farmer be freed from the curse. To be honest, this could take a long time – but a trip to the field of stony lentils pays off several times over!
Directions
From the church in Guttaring, walk a few minutes along the sidewalk along Althofener Straße until you soon reach the first signpost for the “Feld der Steinernen Linsen”. Then turn right, walk a few steps through a housing estate and continue along an idyllic country lane until you reach a nice rest area. If you scrape the ground a little here, you will soon have collected a handful of the little Nummulites.
