2010-06-29

chinese garden

相会园 - Garden of Encounters

Not quite as wondrous as the gardens of Suzhou but a pleasant surprise in small-town Saarland.

2010-06-27

stained glass,

Stained-glass waterfall

Inside Tholey Abbey. All the stained glass windows there were designed by Robert Köck around 1958 and depict scenes from the books of Exodus and Genesis. More photos can be seen on the Abbey web site - Benediktinerabtei St. Mauritius zu Tholey.

2010-06-26

stairs, tower

Entrance to ugliness

The bottom of the Schaumberg Tower (2010-06-25), dating back to the sixties, I guess. The photo is an aggressive crop. It was not possible to get nearer, since the Tower is closed to visitors as they carry out yet another renovation plan.

2010-06-25


Plans

In 1912, there was a plan to build a tower in honour of Kaiser Wilhelm on top of Schaumberg hill. Work was started on this, but never completed. In 1928, plans where changed. Instead of honouring the Kaiser, the tower should honour the German war dead. This plan was carried out. However, in realising it, construction flaws arose and the tower soon became unsafe to climb. In 1965, there was a new plan. A tower was to be built to honour both French and German war dead. The design on the left from French architect Jean-Marie Collin was chosen. Unfortunately, there was not enough money to build it. Instead, the tower on the right was built, a monument to uncompromising ugliness and the problems with plans.

2010-06-20

hills

Rolling hills

A typical scene from North Saarland.

2010-06-19


Red stone Baroque

The Protestant Church of Hornbach, built in 1785 by the architect Friedrich Gerhard von Wahl. It is on the site of the mediaeval monastery.

2010-06-18

church,

Chunky church

The Catholic church in Hornbach, named after of Saint Pirminius who founded a monastery nearby in 740 and thus brought the town into existence.

2010-06-17

berlin wall,

The wall

Rusting model in the foreground, the real thing in the background. The "You are here arrow" is, in this case, a silver disk almost exactly in the centre of the photograph. There appear to have been two parallel walls. The model is located in what was the space between them, which was kept clear so that the guards could easily shoot potential escapees.

2010-06-16

memorial

Memorial to the Murdered Jews of Europe

Some of the 2,711 concrete stelae, one for each page in the Talmud.

2010-06-14


Dem deutschen Volke

The Reichstag, built in 1884, parliament of a re-unified Germany since 1999.

2010-06-12

fountain

Capital wonderball

Sankt Wendel is not the only town with a miraculous rotating ball (2009-09-26).

2010-06-11

football, graffiti,

Joga bonito

A mural in Prenzlauer Berg, Berlin. It was put up when Germany hosted the World Cup in 2006. The artist was Titifreak from São Paulo and it shows the young boy at the bottom dreaming of becoming a star like the Brazilian national player (Ronaldo?) at the top. The full mural can be seen in page seven of Brazil Houses

2010-06-09

bear, statue,

Oops, wrong city!

I think I may have strayed a bit from Saarland.

2010-06-04


Modern Arch

The walls of the Lazarettkirche are thought to date back to the 5th century. This Gothic arch is a few hundred years younger.

2010-06-03

old church

Lazarettkirche

A church dating back to the early middle ages of the now disappeared village of Aschbach, In the time of the Thirty Years War (1618-1648), it was used as hospital (Lazarett) for victims of disease.