Original scientific paper
"...facing judgment day..." The 1348 rock-slide of Dobratsch as local archetype of the apocalypse
Peter Wiesflecker
; Archive of the Styrian Government, Graz, Austria
Abstract
The topic of this paper is the varying perception of a rock slide caused by an earthquake in the area of Dobratsch, an up to 2166 m high mountain massif, on January 25, 1348. The cave material blocked the main river Gail, damming it up. As a consequence, two settlements in the valley plain, among them the seat of an ancient parish, had to be abandoned. To this day, the rock slide of Dobratsch has a special position within the public history of the Gailtal. The local collective memory features a certain archetype of the apocalypse associated with this natural disaster. This archetype, which locally developed since the Late Middle Ages, brings to mind popular end time visions by taking up features commonly associated with such vision, like earth quakes, rock slides, and flood waves, or flooding and devastated landscapes. In the Middle Ages, the news of an earthquake was not only connected to the conception of an elemental natural phenomenon, but also to one of a divine judgment and the harbingers of the apocalypse.
Keywords
Apocalypse; Dobratsch; End times; Late Middle Ages; natural disasters; Archetype
Hrčak ID:
100385
URI
Publication date:
3.12.2012.
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