An Irminsul (Old Saxon ´great pillar´) was a sacred, pillar-like object attested as playing an important role in the Germanic paganism of the Saxons. Medieval sources describe how an Irminsul was destroyed by Charlemagne during the Saxon Wars. A church was erected on its place in 783 and blessed by Pope Leo III.Sacred trees and sacred groves were widely venerated by the Germanic peoples (including Donar´s Oak), and the oldest chronicle describing an Irminsul refers to it as a tree trunk erected in the open air.
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