MAUSOLEUM IN A TREE.

King Country Chronicle, Volume VIII, Issue 669, 16 May 1914, Page 2

MAUSOLEUM IN A TREE.

Ona of the most curious mausoleums in the world was discovered ene day in an orchard at the villa.*2 of Noebdenitz, in Sa-se-Altcn-burg. A gigantic oak-tree, which the storm had robbed of its crown, was up for public auction, and among the bidders happened to be Earon von Thummel, to whom the tree was finally knocked down for 200 marks. Upon his arrival- at the castle the baron told an old servant of his purchase, describing t.h,e tree and its .rituaticn. The servant then said he rc-membersd attending the funeral of a Baron Thummel seventy or eighty years before, and that the body had been buried in a thou-sand-year-old oak, belonging to the parsonage. Investigation clearly, proved that the orchard had once been the property of the village church, and that at the one side of the old oalc was an iron shutter, rusty and timeworn. This shutter proved to be the gate to the mausoleum pf Baron Hans Wilhclm von Thummel, at one time Minister of State of Saxe-Altenburg, who died in 1824. In the hollow of tho. tree Baron Hans caused to be built a sepulchre of masonry large enough to accommodate his coffin. The coffin was placed there, as the church records show, on March 3, 1824, and the opening was closed by an iron gate. In the course of time a wall of wood grew over the opening, which had been enlarged to admit tin coffin aii'l workmen, and- for many year.-! it Iml betu completely shut, thus removing the last vestige of the odd use to vvhich the old tree had been put.