Impressions from Germany: Duderstadt and its Timber Framed Houses

Some time ago I heard about a photo contest, in which the participants were supposed to submit pictures most acturately representing Germany. Still in Morocco, I didn´t have really have a chance to send a nice photo taken in Germany, but still the topic made me think what this one picture could possibly show. You can find skyscrapers in every big city all over the world, also modern factories grow in most unexpected places. Germany has beautiful nature, but that´s quite similar to other European, or even non-European counties of similar climate.
Back then, as I mostly admired Germany for its achievements in the area of envirenment protection, I thought of a wind turbine park on a green hill. Such views are really pretty common here, but I have seen it also in other places (including Morocco with the only difference being the rather disappointing shade of green of the hill). But every time I see timber framed houses, I think of Germany, and I immediately think the picture was taken somewhere here.

Actually, this type of architecture as in the first picture can be found in some other countries, however, while elsewhere it is an exception, in Germany you can find whole towns built this way, and if you are fond of this type of architecture, you can visit them along the so called German Timber-Frame Road leding through about 100 towns worth seeing because of their distinctive timber framed buildings.

Can you imagine, that this German Timber-Frame Road goes through my hometown in Germany? As a result, I can easily visit a few other places famous for this type of architecture, and one of them, Duderstadt, is situated just 20 km away. Let me share with you a few pictures from my recent trip there.

When you walk downtown, it looks like all the houses there are timber framed, and indeed, the historic Old Town has almost exclusively such architecture, but other than that, 70% of all houses in the town are timber framed, which are about 500 houses. If you just wonder, how comes 500 houses make 70% of all houses in a town, Duderstadt hast about 9000 inhabitans, so it is of a slightly different scale than Hamburg or Munich.

There is no serious Old Town without an Old Town gate, but look at the twisted roof! According to a legend, when the devil kept making the men of Duderstadt drink too much, the women somehow managed to scare him out of the town, but in the last attempt to stay in the place he grabbed the roof of the Old Town gate and twisted it. Another, more secular legend, talks about a strong wind causing this beautiful twist.

Pedestrian zone downtown stretches between two quite big churches, one Catholic, Basilicum St. Cyriakus, and one Lutheran, St. Servatius, you can see in the next picture.

We still have museums and places like this closed because of Corona, but suprisingly this church was opened, so I had a look inside.

Unfortunately, because of the dim light inside, I wasn´t successful in taking beautiful pictures, but you can believe me, it was really impressive, in particular the stained glass windows. Not only beautiful colors, but I had an impression there were whole stories told in this pictures, maybe of saints or of some Bible figures, anyway, very intersting.

A little water steam in the pedestrian are between two churches. There are many stores and cafes here, now opened if you show a negative test. In such a case you are free to enjoy you coffee and cake outside.

A kind of well or fontain (in the moment without water) next to the Lutheran church.

And here you can see another one closer to the Catholic church. In the background some of the most interesting timber framed hauses in the town.

Just look at the pattern made of wood...

Here additional decoration...

THat´s probably my winner, not just beautiful patterns, pictures, but evn whole figures hanging out between the windows. Can you imagine living in such a house?

That´s a hotel in the Market Square. Also like cut out from a picture book, and if you are interested in literature, Johann Wolfgann von Goethe, probably the most recognizable German writer, spend there the night from 13 till 14 December 1777. At the moment, German hotels can´t accept the tourists because of Corona, but once it is over, maybe you can even sleep in the same bed as the most famous German poet, if you decide to stay over the night in Duderstadt.

And probably one of the most beautiful City Halls I have ever seen. Already on the first glance it looks like a mix of different styles and indeed it was constructed and reconstructed over many years.

Over many doors you can see C+M+B+ some numbers. That´s a Catholic tradition according to which on January, 6th the Catholics should write by chalk on their door frames the initial letters of the the Latin phrase "Christus mansionem benedicat" (Christus bless this house) between the numbers of the current year, f.e. here it starts with the blessing for the year 2013: 20C+M+B+13. The one for the year 2021 is then 20C+M+B+21 (unfortunately not in this picture). Some say that that´s also a reference to the names of three kings or wise men who visited Baby Jesus in Bethleem shortly after he was born. According to this tradition their name were Casper, Melchior and Balthasar.

And that´s a kind of inpressive rabbit in the gardens behind the city wall and a little garden house, of course also a timber framed one.