Rethra (redirected from Radegast (god))

Rethra 

(also Radogoszcz), a religious center and fortress of the tenth and 11th centuries that belonged to the Baltic Western Slavic tribe of Ratarians, or Rethrians, who were part of the Lutici confederation. Today Rethra is an archaeological site near Feldberg, in the Neubrandenburg District of the German Democratic Republic.

Information about Rethra from the chroniclers Adam von Bremen and Thietmar von Merseburg was validated by the excavations of the German archaeologist C. Schuchhardt in 1922. Rethra was surrounded by two earthen banks with three large and three small towers with gates. In the center stood a wooden temple to Svarozhich, the god of sun and fire. The remains of ten dwellings were uncovered near the temple.

Rethra was destroyed by the troops of Bishop Burchard II of Halberstadt in 1068 and again in the early 12th century by Emperor Lothar III.

REFERENCE

Schuchhardt, C. Arkona, Rethra, Vineta: Ostsuntersuchungen yund Ausgrabungen, 2nd ed. Berlin, 1926.