Frauenalb and Herrenalb Date(s): 2012. Photos by Aymar. 1 - 28 of 28 Total. 1429 Visits.
1 Frauenalb The overview/overlay (18th century buildings in red still exists - at least in parts). Rule of thumb, the more symmetrical, the more sacred. Snowflakes should fall only in the enclosed inner space. Pigsty, coopery, mill house, hayloft and smithy were relegated to the periphery. Part of the estate was converted into a brewery in the 19th century. - Selective translation: Grünhaus/Ch.Dickens, from Bleak House to glass house, otherwise just greenhouse/serre (crib: effet de serre) - Hanfdörre/ parching shed for hemp (the better kind of nettle shirts)/ remise à dessécher le chanvre.
Timeline: the two abbeys (Frauenalb and Herrenalb respectively) were founded in the 12th century (Staufic roots). Endowed by the dukes of Eberstein. Maulbronn (endowed by the same dukes) did sent some technical advisors when the abbey in Herrenalb was set up. It may have worked the same way for Frauenalb a score of years later. The rather impressive surviving church front is palpably Baroque - Sierr...
2 Frauenalb The first view. To the left the abbey church and the enclosed cloister, center: the administrative building (Baroque), to the right an inn with a rather unlikely name (King of Prussia). The empty space to the far right, curtailed due to panning limits, was once occupied by outbuildings (hacienda workshops). The administrative building holds a small museum (closed). Mini tour (by imaginary consolation): the big land registry map - legs in form or shape are accepted, whole villages may apply. The law of diminishing returns probably holds. The elan of the first 100 years can be rarely recaptured. - Different showcase: a long list of succeeding prioresses. Ample opportunity for heraldic splendor, think richly plumed war bonnets imprinted in stone. - Add a small lapidarium. Stones, once chiseled, are less easily remolded than corresponding metal tools or shards of stained glass. Longevity prediction, brittle tracery wins over Uri Geller forks any time. - Tableau part: some monki...
3 Frauenalb wide angle limitations
4 Frauenalb The more distant tower sports an oblong, sky blue rectangle on the penthouse (or muezzin) level. I suspect a chance line of sight alignment of an oval tower window with a missing door. Nearly as good as a heelstone.
5 Frauenalb Unchecked: the Romanesque towers may have been simply incorporated into the big Baroque overhaul (1727-33). The stylistic break is rather striking. Vector assessment (that probably comes under the head of structural engineering): brute force cross section fixing (without inward curving, pendentive walls - let a lintel take the strain).
6 Frauenalb This patio fountain is shut down for good. Center piece of the no longer cloistered courtyard. A conversion into a tennis court, reserved for convalescent army officers, should pose no problem. The courtyard is probably the only level ground in a ten mile radius. Related abbey saw, whatever it takes to simulate physical fitness.
7 Frauenalb The gutted interiors of the abbey church.
8 Frauenalb cookie cutter shape against blue sky
9 Frauenalb The kaleidoscope (stained glass window) that the hand of time removed (if it was ever there). Consolation prize: framed forest.
10 Frauenalb The Wordsworth term of choice is 'abbey'. The corresponding adjective is 'monastic'.
11 Frauenalb Possible remnants of Air Force One. Certainly handy for a milk run to the nearby abbey Herrenalb (about 3 miles). PA system, the prioress is ready for her weekly shopping trip. All neophytes report at once for acceleration duty. - The flanged cast iron wheels speak of a later date, second half of the 19th century at the earliest.
12 Frauenalb First impressions: I would call it the local club house (pious euphemism, just a humble potting shed). The building was finished in 1740. The design was by Thumbs, the same architect who also supervised the construction of the Baroque abbey church. Rousseau context, back to nature.
13 Frauenalb The ostentatious laundry tag (coat of arms) under the Madonna statue (repeated in the balustrade above the fountain) commemorates the prioress Maria Getrud von Ichtratzheim.
14 Frauenalb This carrot garden (gan ha gezer) was well buttressed. Galileo, rather steep for an inclined plane. (Rotate me by 90° and you will have a gurney correct access ramp.)
15 Frauenalb I make this out as Japanese Knotweed (buckwheat, dock and sorrel family). Telltale feature, the zigzag stem.
16 Frauenalb Indirect proof that people in the 18th century were much smaller than today. These cannon balls are not even bowling ball sized. The smaller one is hardly fist-sized. Nobody of present day height could hitch a ride on such a small projectile (Munchhausen on advanced battlefield commuting - the cannonballs in Kästner's 1944 classic were in the beach ball class).
Explanatory plaque (with nearly tangible Bismarck Reich pride, it will never happen again): Imperial troops under Archduke Carl were engaged in evasive action (aka lets give him the slip). Moreau is in hot pursuit. (It is not hard to guess who came up second best in the preceding battle of Malsch.) Possibly related, a nearby pilgrim's church (St.Barbara) was stripped of its lead roof in the same year. We all have to make war contributions. The shown cannonballs do however not look lead cast (too much rust). One plaque, not this one, says that the abbey was used as field hospital during the Napoleonic Wars.
17 Frauenalb Alb valley near the abbey
18 Frauenalb, behidn the abbey It is called Black Forest (black as fir and spruce, you can nowadays add a few ginkgos) but the beech tree zone (possibly some patches of aboriginal forest) of the Rhine plain extends far into the valleys. The coopery (one of the vanished buildings) makes more sense with a near unlimited supply of hardwood.
19 Frauenalb, behind the abbey Shuttlecock fern. Nearby location. Signpost vouchsafed: about 400m above sea level.
20 Herrenalb The Herrrenalb end of the meditation path between the two abbeys (they did take there non coeducation policy serious). With sound track: 'Hic perambulatote' or 'hic perambulatum via est'. In the selfsame spirit (but of rather doubtful correctness): 'Yolu için hacîler'.
21 Herrenalb Spa town Herrenalb, the municipal park, Schweizer Wiese (the Alb valley at its Sunday's best). Not shown, decal free parking space is scarce (caught between a rock and a hard place). The good news, you can now pay with an SMS enabled cell phone.
22 Herrenalb The telltale red tint of this sedimentary rock (wild guess, sandstone) is a hallmark of this part of Baden. Railway stations as well as abbeys still proclaim their affinity with the selfsame aboriginal quarry. With a well rehearsed flourish, consanguinity permeates everything.
23 Herrenalb, the abbey church You cannot strip a Black Forest Church of its backdrop.
I could not do the abbey church full justice. A group arrived ahead of me and I decided to walk around the block and come back later, ignoring the warning of a sky which got progressively more overcast. I was also somewhat footsore. (I had overextended myself the day before. The lure of the power plant studded Rhine plain. Down is easy.)
The abbey church once harbored a sizable 15th century crucifixion scene. Sold off by the temporal powers in 1803. The fire sale of the century (nationalization is over). The crucifixion scene wound up in a nearby castle. Attempts are presently underway to beam it back onto the outer wall of the abbey church. Anaglyph glasses will be provided. (Okay, so I made up the anaglyph part.)
24 Herrenalb, the abbey church The steeply gabled front of the 'paradise' or 'Galilee porch'. In this case an entirely separate building. Function: part chapter house, part allotment space where worthy sponsors were buried, part purification zone (for those not admitted into the church proper for whatever reason). Most abbeys of the White Monks (Cistercians) feature them. A certain symbolism is probably intended. From the terrestrial equivalent to the true thing. Minor grading conundrum, how do you top a vestibule which already represents paradise (or should it read 'transit station to paradise'). The premium space around the choir should still rank higher. - The window arches are still Romanesque. (Two humped Bactrian camels and compound mullions.)
25 Herrenalb, the abbey church By memory: the corresponding botanical term is raceme. With Gothic buildings it is called a pinnacle. The terminating ornament of a pinnacle is the finial. The lateral ornaments are called crockets. An alternative definition for finial is panicled crockets.
26 Herrenalb, the abbey church A wooden arch scaffolded by stone. Matching prophecy: and in time everything will be reversed. Sea to land and land to sea.
27 meditation path In a nutshell: cash for celibacy (or, more correct, for waived celibacy). Duke Ulrich's parachute offer to the monks of Herrenalb was more than generous. 40 Gulden start-up capital in the case of marriage (could you double that if you bedded a nun?), 50 Gulden for a more drastic change in alignment (defection to the Protestant clergy side, after some prepaid reeducation.) Unavoidable William H. Prescott angle, not every kind of priesthood was equally eligible. It should also not be overlooked that the offer, however generous, just masked a brute force expropriation. The fixed interest bearing holdings were gone. Bottom line: grieve it or lump it.
Technically: this is a so called tilting stele (the trick works only from the other side). Ask a question, shift the viewing angle of your rifled picture (there is a tilting knob on either side), view the oracular reply. As easy as throwing theodolites. Fresnel ramification: the scintillating rainbows one gets by tilting...
28 in-between Staggered mouldboards. It may look like a rather commonplace agricultural adjunct but it is in reality a sophisticated semaphoric device. Less elevated, a cell phone backup.
