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Sunday, June 14, 2015

Frauenkirchen and the devil's footprint

Frauenkirchen, a magnificent church was built by in only 20 years (1468-1488) and have a lot of stories about why that is so. One such story goes thus -

It is said that this church was built by the devil himself. 
One day while the church was being built, the devil had come to Munich to meet his friends and have a beer or two (of course the story that I was told by the local however factious had to have beer in it.) When the devil passed by the church, it was not yet complete and the devil being the devil decided to raze the church to the ground. When he went inside one of the entrances, he realised that there were not many windows. The place when fully built would be dark and damp. He thought that when the worshipers would come to this place, due to less light and dampness would fall sick and eventually die early. The devil thought that such a place would surely be a tribute to himself. He went to the architect and offered him a deal. The devil asked that if the architect did not add any more windows to the church then in return he would offer riches and fame to the architect. The devil would also help the architect to build the church in the span of just 20 years. The architect took the deal and built the church.

20 years later when the devil returned and entered the church, he saw that there was plenty of light and the church contained a lot of tall windows. He was angry and went to the architect. The devil now wanted to take the architect's soul as he had broken the deal.
The architect though stopped the devil and said 'I did not break the deal. Your condition was that I should not add any more windows to the church and I did not'. 

You see 20 years prior the devil had entered the church from the entrance where the architect's ingenuity had placed the columns in such a way that it hid all the windows except the one above the altar. Now when the church was built, the devil entered the church from another entrance and did not see the same columns hiding the windows. 

The devil was himself duped by a mere human. He was so angry that he stomped his foot in the church and till today you can see his footprint in the church.

The other story is that the footprint inside the church is that of the architect. Instead of signing his work at a corner, he put his footprint as a signature. But you decide which story you find more interesting.

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