Hünenpforte

The Hünenpforte is a striking natural limestone arch standing above the B 7 highway in Hagen-Holthausen, North Rhine-Westphalia. It rises at the end of a limestone ridge that also carries the ruins of Raffenburg castle. From the arch visitors look across the deep Lennetal valley towards Hohensyburg and the Ruhr valley. The name comes from its resemblance to a giant’s gateway, a shape five to seven metres high created by the collapse of a large cave. Local legends speak of giants and robber knights, but geologists explain the arch as the result of karst processes or an earthquake. Excavations inside the cave have yielded stone tools from the late Old Stone Age, while nearby Blätterhöhle has produced human remains from the Late Stone Age, Mesolithic and early Neolithic periods. Archaeologists now regard the whole area as one of Germany’s and Europe’s most important Stone Age find spots. On one side of the arch the ground falls steeply to the road, while on the other it opens into a level clearing surrounded by tall beeches. Here stand the low walls and earthworks of Rücklenburg, a small 13th-century tower house with moat that was destroyed in 1288 together with Raffenburg. Between these ruins and the Raffenburg massif lies the field called Alte Statt, where traces of Stone Age activity and medieval settlement have been found.