The best traffic-free bike rides around Mockrehna

The axe, renewed and carefully maintained since the 18th century, is considered a landmark of the place, keeps the Pumphut legend alive and even made it into the local coat of arms. For some years now, there has also been a 1.80-meter-high bronze figure of the axe-throwing Pumphut by the Bad Schmiedeberg sculptor Gert Büttner.[7] The primary school in Mockrehna also bears the name Pumphut because of the legend.[8] The original axe was later first kept in the tower's orb and is now located in the museum in the Gutshaus.[9] Source https://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kirche_Mockrehna

According to legend, Martin Pumphut, also known as the sorcerer of Upper Lusatia, sat one evening as a journeyman in a Mockrehna inn, teased the peasants and the miller, showed off tricks with his axe, until a newly arrived guest shouted: "This is the sorcerer, he is in league with the devil, take his magic axe away from him!" Pumphut jumped out, ran into the cemetery. And when the crowd pursuing him wanted to grab him, he swung his axe and let it fly with a hiss and a crash to the church tower's spire, where it got stuck. Everyone looked after it, and Pumphut disappeared under a large stone. He was never seen again afterwards.[5] Another version of the legend can be found in a record discovered in 1902 in the church tower's cavity: "Pumphut was a miller's apprentice of great strength, but a brawler who often used an axe. (Millers had the right to carry axes in the 17th century.) Now, Pumphut was to have his axe taken away, but with the words: 'Before you get it, it shall stick in your tower as an eternal reminder!' he threw it at the then wooden tower top, where it got stuck. It is still stuck there today to the amazement of many travelers passing by on the train." – Article in the Linzer Volksblatt of September 12, 1902[6] Source https://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kirche_Mockrehna

The interior has a flat, dark wooden beamed ceiling. The triumphal arches to the choir area under the tower and to the apse are Romanesque with lateral imposts. The three-sided galleries are in light gray and the entire room is kept in simple white. The altar stands in the apse and, as the altarpiece, shows a crucifixion scene between columns decorated with carvings, surrounded by irregularly framed images of angels. In the center of the choir stands the sandstone baptismal font. The pulpit is made of wood. On its basket, it shows the images of the Evangelists and on its ascent, Jacob with the ladder to heaven. The church has three bells, the oldest from 1662. A bronze bell of the same age had to be handed over for armament purposes in the First World War and was replaced in 1922 by a steel bell with the inscription "Glory to God in the highest". Finally, in 1985, a third bell with the inscription "Dona nobis pacem" was added from a private donation. Source https://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kirche_Mockrehna

The church is a Romanesque choir tower church built of fieldstones, approximately 24 m long and 10 m wide. The shaft of the rectangular tower and the adjoining round apse with a conical roof are exposed stone. The tower has a saddle roof running in a north-south direction with two dormers with bull's-eye windows. The gables on the tower and the nave are plastered. The tower has a copper-covered Baroque dome with an octagonal lantern and ends with the spire, in which the Pumphut axe is embedded, the tower globe, and the weather vane. The gables of the tower show a clock face of the tower clock on the north and south sides respectively. The bell storey of the tower has round-arched twin windows with a central column, two on the broad side facing east, and one on each of the narrow sides. The nave has round-arched windows, whose high position is determined by the gallery inside. A shortening of the gallery on the south side allows for a larger window there. Segmental arch windows at ground floor level mark former, partly bricked-up doors. The door and window surrounds are made of bog iron ore. Access to the church is through an extension with a hip roof on the west side, which also contains the staircase to the gallery. Source https://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kirche_Mockrehna

The Mockrehna church was built around the year 1208. Until the first Lutheran church visitation in 1525, it had its own parish post, which then went to the larger Wildenhain. From 1925 to 2001, Mockrehna was once again an independent church community.[4] Since 1945, Catholic services have also been held in the church. In 1705, the church was fundamentally rebuilt. The tower was demolished to a height of six meters, and the new construction acquired its present baroque form. The doors on the north and south sides gave way to a sandstone portal on the west gable, which was later replaced by an extension. The church was completely plastered. The church interior acquired its present form. The axe from the Pumphut legend was first attached as a wooden one to the tower, which was replaced by an iron one in 1835. In 1956, the apse and tower were freed from plaster, but this was reapplied to the tower gables in the 2010s. In 1976/77, the weather vane, tower globe, and axe were renewed, and the slate covering of the hood was replaced with copper sheet. The church received its tower clock in 1982. Source: https://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kirche_Mockrehna

The Mockrehna church is a sacred building of the Evangelical Church in Central Germany in the center of Mockrehna near Torgau in the Nordsachsen district.[1] It belongs to the parish of Audenhain[2] and is a listed building.[3] It is – also because of the broad axe allegedly thrown into the spire by Pumphut – the landmark of the place. Source https://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kirche_Mockrehna

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