Badge of Hilgendal
Even when a badge has a legible inscription it is not always possible to identify the place of origin. This is the case with a badge reading HILGENDAL.
Gathering from its inscription this intriguing but unidentified badge originates from a place of pilgrimage called Hilgendal. Corresponding with the Dutch word 'heiligendal' or the German 'Heiligenthal' the name can be translated as Valley of the Saints. Two figures are depicted: a male saint on the left and the Madonna on the right. She holds a lily scepter in her right hand. The lily on top can still be discerned along the arcade.
Because the badge dates from the period 1350-1450 a 16th-century estate called HeiligenthalI in Lüneburg (Germany) cannot be the badge's provenance. Anna von Möller only founded the chapel on the estate in 1568.
Founded in 1313-14 by a knight called Lippold von Doren the village of Kirchgellersen once had a Premonstratensian monastery called Heiligenthal. It was called Santa Vallis (Saintly or Holy Valley). The name later changed to Hilgendale (Heiligenthal). The valley turned out be swampy and unsafe due to local wars. In 1382 the monastery was moved to a dry and secure place within the walls of the city of Lüneburg. After the Reformation, the monastery was dissolved. The name fits, but little is known of a pilgrimage to this monastery. If Lüneburg had a miraculous statue of the Virgin Mary and also a wonderworking statue of a male saint attracting pilgrims, one would expect there to be a mention of miracles in the archives or in historiography.
For now, the provenance of the badge remains a mystery.
Image: Collection Bureau Monumenten & Archeologie Amsterdam, ROK1-7 (Kunera no. 04720)