The Hostrupkrat Stone

A giant boulder by the roadside

Near Felsted, along Sønderborgvej, stands the Hostrupkrat Stone – a large erratic boulder of red granite. The stone is about five metres long and weighs approximately 50 tonnes.

A poem is carved into the granite on the flat side facing the road:

The glacier wore me away
from the peaks of the northern mountains,
wrapped me
in its white cloak,
dragged me far
on its mighty
sledge

and laid me here
as a nameless memorial
to the caprice that shaped
from sea, clay and gravel
the fertile soil
for Denmark’s
homes.

Here, the poem tells the story in the stone’s own voice – of its long journey with the ice and of the landscape of which it eventually became a part.

Today, the giant boulder stands at a small lay-by along the main road between Aabenraa and Sønderborg, where it is publicly accessible.

Brought here by the ice

The Hostrupkrat Stone is an erratic boulder – a stone transported here by glacial ice during the Ice Age. The ice moved slowly across the landscape, carrying large quantities of stone, sand, clay and gravel from the north.

As the climate became warmer, the ice melted. The stone was left behind together with the materials that helped shape the landscape of Southern Jutland.

The great granite block is therefore a visible trace of the enormous forces that, during the Ice Ages, created hills, valleys and the soil that was later cultivated.

A stone in the way

In 1935, the Hostrupkrat Stone was moved about ten metres because it stood in the way of the planned road construction. Moving the approximately 50-tonne stone was a demanding task.

The surviving photographs show the stone on a heavy wagon pulled by several horses. Workers accompanied the transport on foot as the huge stone was slowly moved to its new location.

The road became locally known as “Minutvejen” (“The Minute Road”). According to local tradition, the name came from the belief that the costly road project saved travellers only a few minutes of travelling time.

When the stone found its voice

The Southern Jutland writer Marcus Lauesen wrote the poem that is now carved into the stone. His childhood home was nearby, and in the poem he lets the stone itself tell the story of its journey with the glacier.

The poem begins with the words: “The glacier wore me away from the peaks of the northern mountains.” From there, the story follows the movement of the ice and continues to the fertile soil that the ice left behind.

The sculptor Gunnar Hammrich adapted the lines of the poem to the shape and surface of the stone. The words were then carved into the granite by the stonemason Iversen from Sønderborg.

In this way, the Hostrupkrat Stone became both a geological trace of the Ice Age and a local work of art, telling its own story.

The Hostrupkrat Stone