More than 700 medieval tunnels called Erdstall honeycomb the ground in Bavaria, with hundreds more across Austria and central Europe. They are tiny — about 1 to 1.4 meters high and no more than 60 centimeters wide — and connected by "Schlupf," squeeze-holes so narrow you have to crawl through one shoulder-first. Most run less than 50 meters and have a single hidden entrance and no second exit.
Nobody knows what they were for. There is "not a single written record of the construction of an Erdstall dating from the medieval period," and the tunnels are "almost completely empty" and swept clean. Radiocarbon dates put them between roughly 950 and 1270. Theories range from escape routes and storage to ritual "soul passages"; the religious idea is the most common, partly because the chambers look "as if they were abodes for the spirits." Locals call them "Schrazelloch" — goblin holes.
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