When the Gothic-style St Mary’s Church was being built in Lübeck in the mid-13th century, local legend has it that none other than Satan himself stopped by the construction site to see what was afoot. The workers, scared to tell him the truth, told the devil they were building a magnificent wine bar. The devil was so excited to have some more souls come his way, he began to lend a hand with the construction.
As the legend goes, it was only when the basilica was nearly finished that the prince of darkness realized he had been tricked. In his rage, he picked up a large slab to destroy the church, but a quick-thinking laborer promised him that they would build a wine bar in the same neighborhood. This pacified the devil, who dropped the slab right near the church.
The slab still remains at that spot, with markings that are supposedly the claw marks of the devil, and is called the “Devil’s Stone.” To honor the legend, a bronze statue of the devil designed by Rolf Goerler was placed on the slab in 1999. He looks quite pleased with the way things turned out and smiles cheekily at passers-by. The people of Lübeck also kept their word, and built the Ratskeller tavern across the road from the church.
https://www.atlasobscura.com/places/the-devils-stone-lubeck-germany“It all began with a visit to Lübeck,” explains José Antonio Abella, the creator and donator of the statue. “They also have a local legend about the devil being duped into building a church. When I saw the little figure they had there as a tribute, I thought, ‘What a great idea to export to Segovia!’”
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The story also has nothing to do with the “glorification of evil.” It’s a story about the defeat of evil — through pluck, luck, cunning, and maybe a bit of divine intervention.
Abella’s devil is a good sport about it. Like the grinning imp outside of St. Mary’s in Lübeck, he seems to have accepted his loss in good humor.
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“It’s insane,” adds sculptor José Antonio Abella, who points out with a hint of irony that this Mephistopheles is going to be installed next to the former headquarters of the Spanish Inquisition in the city. “It would appear that the inquisitors never left the country for good,” he concludes.
https://www.patheos.com/blogs/slacktivist/2019/01/15/dealing-with-the-devil/
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