The Lousberg (Aachen) legends
How to trick the devil – this might be a question for all those who have
had dealings with him. According to legend, the people of Aachen got rid of the
devil twice using their wits and courage… The first legend explains why the
massive entry door to the main portal of the Cathedral is called “Wolf’s Door”
and how this was the first piece of cast bronze to be made north of the Alps:
When the people of Aachen ran into financial difficulties over the construction
of their Cathedral, the devil offered the city council a substantial cash
injection. However, the devil’s part of the bargain was to be the soul of the
first person who would enter the Cathedral during its inauguration, and he might
well have hoped for that of a bishop or even the Pope. This deal could not be
kept a secret for long, and with the inauguration day approaching, nobody
wanted to be the first to enter the Cathedral. The councilors came up with a
cunning solution: a wolf was caught in a nearby wood and charged through the
Cathedral portal as the first living being. In blind excitement the devil
grabbed his prey and tore its soul from its chest. However, when he realized
that he had been tricked, he threw away the soul in a rage and banged the
Cathedral door shut with such force that its metal was slightly bent and also
the devil’s thumb was ripped off. Today, this thumb can still be admired in one
of the two lion heads, which adore the entry portal. There are of course those
skeptics who insist that the devil’s thumb is the remnant of a former door
ring…
The entry area to the Cathedral also features a couple of Roman cast pieces
that are linked to this legend: the pinecone symbolizes the wolf’s soul and the
figure of the wolf (a bear according to some sources) indicates the point where
the devil is said to have robbed it of its soul.
According to the second legend the Lousberg was created by the devil as
an act of revenge. The devil had been tricked by the people of Aachen once
before. He was so enraged about this embarrassment that he intended to cover
the city and the Cathedral with a mountain of sand. For this purpose he got a
large bag of sand from the beach. On his way back to the city, he was laboring
under the heavy load when he met a farmer's wife with badly worn shoes and
asked her the way to Aachen. However, the farmer's wife had recognized the
devil and told him that she was just coming from Aachen. She said that she had
bought her new shoes in Aachen and now they were already totally worn – this
was how far it was to Aachen. Hearing this news, the devil dropped the sand
sack, angry and exhausted. The spot where the devil dropped the sack is today's
site of the Lousberg. From here you have a magnificent panoramic view of the
whole city.
Ton Lousberg