Date(s): 2010. Photos by Aymar. 1 - 33 of 33 Total. 800 Visits.
1 Oberstenfeld, vintner house Vintner house at the corner of the Cooper lane.
2 Oberstenfeld, vintner house Baroque doorway. And something always rubs off. The top part of the door is oversized. The plaque calls it the 'ear effect'. Nothing jumbo class but noticeable. The matching relieve arch is just a segment of framed chess figure ballustrade. More than suboptimal but as long as if feels right. Rephrased, saved by sheer lintel thickness.
3 Oberstenfeld, Kratzmühle Melac : I did not single out watermills in any way or form. The torching orders were village specific. - Judge: sounds impartial.
The lower bar in the century 7 could be a restoration error. An identical writing of 2 and 7 would make no sense.
Down the history lane, Württemberg before Schiller: My personal recommendation for the hall of infamy: the feckless Eberhard Ludwig. He not only invited foreign encroachment but imitated Versailles as a final insult to his subjects (eponymous residence and over taxation of rubbled villages). The actual affairs of state were left in the hands of the profligate Grävenitz. There followed the short reign of the martial Karl Alexander, the fortress builder. The timing was excellent. You either have the useless strongholds or the marauding Melacs but never both. Melac would have given them a wide berth anyhow.
Along...
4 Oberstenfeld, Dorfkirche The present Dorfkirche dates from the mid 18th century. The rebuilding of more humble dwellings had a high priority. Melac, brazenly: What do you want. Spontaneous combustion is a fact of life.
5 Oberstenfeld, Dorfkirche The Baroque slate bonnet of the Stiftskirche (Protestant term: 'introduced bonnet') dates back to the late 17th century. The next door Dorfkirche most likely followed suit when it was rebuilt around 1740. Keeping up with the Joneses. An old drawing still shows a steepled Dorfkirche facing the 'bonneted' Stiftskirche. The drawing is most likely from the Kieser'sche Forstlagerbuch of 1686, the Bible in all those questions. In any case very close in style. (And Herod ordered Andreas Kieser to do skyline sketches of all the spared villages of the duchy, the belated post 30 Year War census.) The foresight was unintentional. Posthumous billing, just as suggestion, the duchy before Melac.
6 Oberstenfeld, the two churches anno 1686 Orientation room, Lichtenberg castle. Most likely an engraving based on the 'Kiesersche Forstlagenbuch'.
7 Oberstenfeld, Dorfkirche The canting arms refer in this case not to a person but to the name of the village. 'Field of the major'. Could still be an indirect Lichtenberg allusion.
8 Oberstenfeld, Stiftskirche The massive tower is clearly Romanesque (minus the cap). The ashlar nearly dislodging proof by sheer size. Most valued feature, non-inflammable.
9 Oberstenfeld, Stiftskirche Still looks somewhat distorted even with post treatment. Long distance shots are easy.
10 Oberstenfeld, Stiftskirche Gamboling stone lions. The tower is otherwise rather austere.
11 Oberstenfeld, Stiftskirche This dedication honors two late 16th century abbesses. A camel hair clothed John the Baptist gives his blessing. - In petto, contrariness in fashion attracts.
12 Oberstenfeld, Stiftskirche best guess, a tethering bar for Shetland ponies
13 Oberstenfeld, Stiftskirche The unmoved creator ensconced in a rainbow mandorla ('almond throne', whole body halo, not to be confused with mandalas, the Chinese checker boards with the missing tokens). In any case brindled with color. Various amanuenses are on stand-by. RAID 4 standard by my reckoning. The display on the choir arch may have been added during the late 19th century renovation of this former abbey church. Artistic guideline, whatever was regarded as venerable at the time. The authority of Mescaline inspired Mt.Athos monks still unshakable. - Poor picture quality (should have used a tripod) but why waste a good opportunity for some burlesque comments.
14 Oberstenfeld, Stiftskirche Didactic ornament in a familiar leaflet style. Suitable for younger viewers. The incipient baldness (shaved forehead?) of the superior angel is noticeable. Nearly a stylistic inconsistency if juxtaposed with all that chubbiness.
15 Oberstenfeld, Stiftskirche Capital in the nave. Off hand, with arcanthus and pierced tongue. Possibly Alpirsbach inspired (> the corresponding capital). Possibly a stylized replacement. (Not sure how you replace capitals without a dedicated lifting-jack.)
16 Oberstenfeld, Stiftskirche crypt Altar of the 11th century crypt. The crypt served as the burial place of the barons of Lichtenstein. Minor incongruity: the crypt was part of the abbey church of a nunnery (tentatively, the distaff side of the Lichtenberg nobility and close country club acquaintances). In theory for members only. The legible epitaph names seem to bear that out. This begs the question, where were the males entombed. They cannot all have gone crusading. Most likely loophole: most abbeys will have allowed the burial of worthy sponsors regardless of gender. The absence of male names on the legible epitaphs in that case just a sampling error.
General observation, not directly related: nunneries for non highborn females were usually called beguinages. Often set up as garment industry related ventures. Roughly, you get what you pay for. RV (rente viagère) model, particularly in the first case. No admission without some sort of 'dowry'. The Freudian propaganda obviously did come handy to ...
17 Oberstenfeld, Stiftskirche crypt This epitaph commemorates the highborn abbess Maria Elisabeth von Weitershausen. Coat of arms of Lichtenberg.
19 Oberstenfeld I would describe it as hedging strategy. A flag in every camp. Possibly somewhat South American biased.
20 Oberstenfeld The matching porch. - Some vintner houses are more traditional than others.
21 Heuerbach with Forstberg lower and higher highways
22 Heuerbach with Forstberg
23 Heuerbach Could be Holcus lanatus. Safe fallback position, graminoids by the road.
24 Heuerbach best guess, anther tasseled orchard grass
25 Köchersberg I made an about about face at this point. The plan was to first see the Stiftskirche and then to push on to the Wunnenstein. That did not work out. Just the usual complications with inconvenient opening hours. You are always too early and then decide to do something else only to worry about being to late. I decided in any case that I did not want to miss the Stiftskirche. And afterwards it was time for the Lichtenstein castle (open to the public something like 11.00 to 16.00 on Sunday afternoons in summer). When I finally got to the Wunnenstein it was late afternoon. - About face is not exact. I still explored the forest edge above the vineyards before I trekked back.
26 Köchersberg, Iris germanica Garden Iris with crab spider
27 Köchersberg, Iris germanica the dark plane version
28 Köchersberg, Dianthus carthusianorum Carthusian pink. Another attempt at bifocal stitching. Far from perfect. Should write a program to do it for me. (Not completely out of the world. Sharpness can be measured and a smart superposition would be no problem with a still life.)
29 in between, public swimming The Bottwartal consolidated. There is presently one big public swimming pool (between Beilstein and Oberstenfeld) and one big, state of the art press house (between Oberstenfeld end of Grossbottwar). As long as nobody feels shortchanged.
30 Onobrychis viciifolia Sainfoin, a high summer herald, against cloud shape. A sainfoin fringe nearly a must for a politically correct parking lot, public pool or not. (The picture is from an equivalent location. Minor slight of hand for the shake of crispiness.)
31 Onobrychis viciifolia
32 Wunnenstein, Sinalco At the top of the Celtic Wunnenstein: a sponsored parasol, light radiating and screened by a privet hedge screened (the impromptu cold sink). Some billboards did announce life television (sports related). One can also make it to the belvedere (et encore un petit effort). Triple dated plaque: 1388, 1888 and 1937. There is no stone left of the 1388 castle.
33 Wunnenstein Panoramic view. At the horizon, Grossbottwar. Dimly made out, far right, Kleinbottwar and possibly Steinheim. The two pominent mountain tops, center left, should be the Benning and the Harzberg. The South facing sides are given over to viticulture (same basic rule as for moss on trees, just a different cardinal direction). The vineyards in front belong to Grossbottwar-Winzerhausen (a vintner vintnered in vintnertown).
