Rungholt was a wealthy city in
NordfrieslandNordfriesland, English "Northern Friesland" or "North Frisia", is a district in Schleswig-Holstein, Germany. It includes almost all of traditional North Frisia along with adjacent areas to the east and south and is bounded by the districts of Schleswig-Flensburg and Dithmarschen, the North Sea and...
, northern
GermanyGermany , officially the Federal Republic of Germany , is a country in Central Europe. It is bordered to the north by the North Sea, Denmark, and the Baltic Sea; to the east by Poland and the Czech Republic; to the south by Austria and Switzerland; and to the west by France, Luxembourg, Belgium,...
. It sank beneath the waves when a storm tide (the first "
grote MandraenkeThe Grote Mandrenke was the name of a massive southwesterly Atlantic gale which swept across England, the Netherlands, northern Germany, and Schleswig around January 16 1362, causing at minimum 25,000 deaths. January 16 is the feast day of St...
") in the
North SeaThe North Sea is a marginal, epeiric sea on the European continental shelf. The Dover Strait and the English Channel in the south and the Norwegian Sea in the north connect it to the Atlantic Ocean. It is more than long and wide, with an area of around...
tore through the area on January 16, 1362.
Rungholt was situated on the island of
StrandStrand was an island on the west coast of Nordfriesland in modern Germany. It was destroyed by the Burchardi flood of 1634 splitting into the islands Nordstrand, Pellworm, and Nordstrandischmoor....
, which was rent asunder by another storm tide in 1634, and of which the islets of
PellwormPellworm is one of the North Frisian Islands on the North Sea coast of Germany. It is part of the Nordfriesland district in the federal state of Schleswig-Holstein. Its area is 37 km², and its population is circa 1,200....
,
NordstrandNordstrand is a peninsula and former island in North Frisia on the North Sea coast of Germany. It is part of the Nordfriesland district in the federal state of Schleswig-Holstein. Its area is 50 km², and its population is 2,300...
and Nordstrandischmoor are the only remaining fragments.
Relics of the city were being found in the
Wadden SeaThe Wadden Sea is an intertidal zone in the southeastern part of the North Sea. It lies between the coast of northwestern continental Europe and the range of Frisian Islands, forming a shallow body of water with tidal flats and wetlands. It is rich in biological diversity...
until the late 20th century, but shifting sediments have carried the last of these into the sea.
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Rungholt was a wealthy city in
NordfrieslandNordfriesland, English "Northern Friesland" or "North Frisia", is a district in Schleswig-Holstein, Germany. It includes almost all of traditional North Frisia along with adjacent areas to the east and south and is bounded by the districts of Schleswig-Flensburg and Dithmarschen, the North Sea and...
, northern
GermanyGermany , officially the Federal Republic of Germany , is a country in Central Europe. It is bordered to the north by the North Sea, Denmark, and the Baltic Sea; to the east by Poland and the Czech Republic; to the south by Austria and Switzerland; and to the west by France, Luxembourg, Belgium,...
. It sank beneath the waves when a storm tide (the first "
grote MandraenkeThe Grote Mandrenke was the name of a massive southwesterly Atlantic gale which swept across England, the Netherlands, northern Germany, and Schleswig around January 16 1362, causing at minimum 25,000 deaths. January 16 is the feast day of St...
") in the
North SeaThe North Sea is a marginal, epeiric sea on the European continental shelf. The Dover Strait and the English Channel in the south and the Norwegian Sea in the north connect it to the Atlantic Ocean. It is more than long and wide, with an area of around...
tore through the area on January 16, 1362.
Rungholt was situated on the island of
StrandStrand was an island on the west coast of Nordfriesland in modern Germany. It was destroyed by the Burchardi flood of 1634 splitting into the islands Nordstrand, Pellworm, and Nordstrandischmoor....
, which was rent asunder by another storm tide in 1634, and of which the islets of
PellwormPellworm is one of the North Frisian Islands on the North Sea coast of Germany. It is part of the Nordfriesland district in the federal state of Schleswig-Holstein. Its area is 37 km², and its population is circa 1,200....
,
NordstrandNordstrand is a peninsula and former island in North Frisia on the North Sea coast of Germany. It is part of the Nordfriesland district in the federal state of Schleswig-Holstein. Its area is 50 km², and its population is 2,300...
and Nordstrandischmoor are the only remaining fragments.
Relics of the city were being found in the
Wadden SeaThe Wadden Sea is an intertidal zone in the southeastern part of the North Sea. It lies between the coast of northwestern continental Europe and the range of Frisian Islands, forming a shallow body of water with tidal flats and wetlands. It is rich in biological diversity...
until the late 20th century, but shifting sediments have carried the last of these into the sea. In the 1920s and 1930s, some remains of the city were exposed; they suggest a population of at least 1500 to 2000, which is fairly large for that region and time, and it is likely that Rungholt was a major port. Legend has greatly exaggerated its size and wealth, however.
Impressed by the fate of the city, the relics, and not least legend's excessive descriptions, the German poet
Detlev von LiliencronBaron Detlev von Liliencron born Friedrich Adolf Axel Detlev Liliencron was a German lyric poet and novelist from Kiel, the son of Louis Freiherr von Liliencron and Adeline von Harten....
wrote a poem about this lost city which starts with the words: "Heut bin ich über Rungholt gefahren, die Stadt ging unter vor fünfhundert Jahren". (Today I travelled across Rungholt, the City went under five hundred years ago)
Local myth has it that one can still hear the church bells of Rungholt ringing when sailing through the area on a stormy night.
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