The pig above the church door

Above the entrance of the church of Stroe was a stone with a pig carved into it. Allan saw it in 1855: a relief in Bentheim sandstone, made almost invisible by time. What it meant, he did not know for certain. Various stories were told about that.

According to one explanation, it was there to keep Jews out of the church. Allan gives that explanation like this: the emperor Hadrian had a swine placed above the gates of Aelia Capitolina, to make the Jews shun Jerusalem. He did not believe that story for Stroe itself. Others saw in it the pig of Saint Anthony, or a stone from the heathen temple: a sign of fertility, sometimes linked with the god Freyr.

The old stone is lost, but the new chapel has one again. And for those who enjoy it: in a list of nicknames from 1892, the islanders are called "Wieringer biggen" (Wieringen piglets).