The Thunderstone of Ensisheim as an omen
A stone that fell as Europe went to war, read as a sign from God.
Key facts
- People and tradition
- Holy Roman Empire
- Region
- Europe
- When
- 7 November 1492
The story
Just before midday on 7 November 1492, a stone of about 127 kg fell with a great crash into a wheat field near Ensisheim in Alsace. A boy saw it land. Villagers chipped pieces off as good-luck charms until the local authorities stopped them and had the stone placed in the parish church.
The young King Maximilian, soon to be Holy Roman Emperor, was passing through on his way to war with France. He declared the stone a sign of God's favour, and ordered that it be kept in the church. The poet Sebastian Brant wrote verses about it that were printed on broadsheets and spread across Europe, making it one of the first meteorite falls to be widely reported in print.
What science says
The Ensisheim meteorite is an ordinary chondrite of type LL6, and it is the oldest meteorite in Europe whose fall is dated and which survives. Most of the stone is still in Ensisheim, where the town has a fraternity devoted to it. Its fall came 300 years before scientists accepted that stones fall from the sky.
Did you know?
During the French Revolution the stone was taken away to nearby Colmar, and it was later returned to Ensisheim.
Only about 55 kg of the original stone is still in Ensisheim; the rest was broken off over the centuries.