MENHIRS OF EUROPE

A real open-air museum in Launstroff.
You would almost think you were in Brittany with all these menhirs: about thirty (36 to be precise) mark out a loop of 8 kilometers.
But where do they come from?
At the beginning of the 80's, the German sculptor from Merzig Paul Schneider (1927 - 2021) expressed the wish to create a path of sculptures on the theme of the border. The site of Wellingen-Launstroff is perfectly suited for this, since it has the particularity of having several kilometers of no-man's-land, which forms the border between France and Germany.
In 1986, the first international sculpture symposium took place, bringing together five artists: two Germans, one French, one Luxembourger and one Swiss.
Since then, 36 sculptures by artists of 17 different nationalities have been erected on both sides of the border, in France as well as in Germany. A testimony which proves that culture has the capacity to erase borders.
It has always been Paul Schneider's wish that the sculptures fit into the landscape as naturally as possible: "... nature does not need these sculptures, but the sculptures need nature..." he says.

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