>A very elegant gargoyle on the roof of the Heilig Geist restaurant.

The Heilig Geist Spital (Hospice of the Holy Spirit) in Mainz was one of many benevolent institutions established by the church in medieval times to provide lodgings for pilgrims, the homeless, the old, the sick and the generally downtrodden.

The original hospice was built adjacent to the cathedral, but was moved in 1236 at the insistence of the NIMBY faction of the time to its present location – at the time, integrated into the city wall and on the banks of the Rhine.

Now, given Mainz’s reputation of being built on archaeological quicksand, it could be considered somewhat rash to dig anywhere in the place.

But the Heilig Geist’s neighbours needed to do some renovations and dig they did.

Until yesterday they came across 11 skeletons. Plus a loose skull.

Victims of a mass murderer or the Plague (which ripped through the city with disturbing regularity in 1348, 1482, 1553, 1564 and 1592)?

Given the location – next to the hospice and outside the city wall – probably the latter.

No other artefacts (such as coins) to give an indication of the date, so carbon-dating it will be.

I think I’ll give the Heilig Geist a miss for a couple of days, though.

Not if they start serving the “Plague du Jour”…..

09 Aug This entry was published on 9 August, 2007 at 07:24. It’s filed under Mainz and tagged heilig geist, nimby. Bookmark the permalink. Follow any comments here with the RSS feed for this post.