Chimera (architecture)

As envy head is called grimaces that are attached to walls, doors and gables of houses and other buildings. The term is derived from the Old High German word nid, which stands for hatred, anger or envy.

Nature

To ward off evil, they brought in Europe grotesque heads of animals, people and fabulous monsters made ​​of stone or wood on doors. The head should envy by people faith the evil and repel evil ( apotropaic act). The evil powers and spirits should the people in the so roofed buildings envy nothing and they do not spend so against the residents. Envy heads there was the size of a palm of the hand up to head size. Sometimes they lived in stone form as a stage to the porch size to 1.50 m. Envy heads were particularly at west aligned pillars and parts of buildings, as you suspected the demons mostly there.

The old Berlin envy head

In the streets of Old Berlin, there were at the house Heiligegeistgasse 38 to demolition of the entire district in the late 1960s, the envy of head shown on the right. The attached above the front door sandstone relief as an evil woman face with snake hair and a out stretched tongue was supposed to serve the purpose of vorzuhalten a curious and malicious neighbor a character mirror. The sculpture is now in the Berlin Museum Märkischen.

Origins

The custom probably goes back to Celtic origins, as you anbrachte enemy skull to the outer boundaries of the buildings to deter enemies. He also was considered a good luck symbol and was also mounted on armor. It was believed that the exhibition of the head you have power over the soul and the spirit of the enemy. Without knowledge of this cult, the custom has also been maintained with stone heads from now Christianized people.