Tag:historic=high_cross

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Public-images-osm logo.svg historic = high_cross
Clonmacnoise Cross of Scriptures replica from Temple MacDermott.png
Description
An early medieaval standing cross, richly decorated, often with a ring surrounding the crossing point.
Group: historic
Used on these elements
may be used on nodesshould not be used on waysshould not be used on areasshould not be used on relations (except multipolygon relations)
Implies

material=stone

Useful combination
Status: in use

A  High Cross is a standing cross made from stone found in Ireland and Great Britain. They are richly decorated with religious scenes and/or knotwork patterns etc. They often stand on a base which may also be decorated. Often, they follow the style of the ringed Celtic cross. They often mark sites of early Christian monasteries, however, some have been moved to protect them from acid rain or vandalism. Genuine high crosses are recorded as such in national heritage databases, many Irish examples are National Monuments (ref:IE:nm=*) - 34 out of 58 mapped so far[1] - or part of National Monument sites.

Even when only a stump survives, they should be mapped as a high cross.

During the Celtic Revival of the 19th century, their shape was imitated for grave markers and since then also for memorials. However, these should not be mapped with historic=high_cross, but as historic=memorial.

How to map

Place node at the location, add at least historic=high_cross.

Additional tags

If anyone wanted to add the religion=*, it would be religion=christian for all of them.

They are not to be confused with wayside crosses (historic=wayside_cross) or market crosses (historic=market_cross).

Rendering

Since high crosses are not rendered on OSM, you might want to add man_made=cross to make sure they appear on maps.

Gallery

See also

Possible mapping mistakes

  • name=High Cross ‒ When used on a high cross, usually, the name is more specific and includes the name of the monastic site or townland.[2]
If you know places with this tag, verify if it could be tagged with another tag.
Automated edits are strongly discouraged unless you really know what you are doing!
If you know places with this tag, verify if it could be tagged with another tag.
Automated edits are strongly discouraged unless you really know what you are doing!

References

  1. https://overpass-turbo.eu/s/1w1g
  2. Place names with name=High Cross are of course accepted.