The Sacred Groves They Cut Down for Christianity

Between 1190 and 1410, the Teutonic Order systematically destroyed over 500 sacred oak groves across Prussia, Lithuania, and Latvia. Each grove was a nemeton — a living temple, a medical archive (the druids knew which mosses grew on which trees), and a legal court (disputes were settled at the grove's edge). The chronicles of the Order call it 'clearing pagan superstition.' The archaeological record shows groves with continuous use for 2,000 years. The cutting was not conversion. It was amnesia.