Date(s): 2006+ spring and fall. Photos by aymar. 1 - 70 of 70 Total. 3580 Visits.
1 Lorch, the monastery The 12th century Benedictine monastery. The traffic sign points in downriver direction. (The gate keeper house riding the wall did once serve as hospice for daring tourists.)
2 Lorch, the monastery
3 Lorch, the monastery
4 Lorch, the monastery
5 Lorch, the monastery The Romanesque 'Marsilius' tower with its double arched windows is the signature structure of the monastery. The tower was partially destroyed during the peasant uprising of 1525. It was only recapped at the end of the 19th century. Restoration looks convincing to me. A matching North tower collapsed during the 15th century. Suspect an earthquake but no explicit cause is mentioned.
6 Lorch, the monastery
7 Lorch, the monastery the crypt is to the left, the refectory to the right. There is also a carp pond somewhere (just water lilies and goldfish presently).
8 Lorch, the monastery
9 Lorch, the monastery Are there some rubies missing from the mitre? The expression betrays a certain degree of bewilderment. Understandable under the circumstances. You expect a last judgment and what do you get, a first hand encounter with a gang of iconoclastic vandals. - Taylor pincushion at the left arm wrist. Crozier or incense vessel is also missing. The two broken rivets.
10 Lorch, the monastery No, I do not know where they kept their pets during combat. (A lizard is walking the sternum. Somewhat gory.)
11 Lorch, the monastery armored 'cap à pied'
12 Lorch, the raised tomba Technically not a good picture but the very heart of the monastery. All available Staufic remains were collected in this tomba by order of the prior. All monks may have joint hands at certain occasions and circled the shrine. [The guarding angels at the four corners are a standard feature for this kind of receptacles.]
13 Lorch, the monastery perimeter wall (Circumcellionic tour)
14 Lorch, the monastery Those monks did cheat. Shame on them. Instead of using standard levitation spells like everybody else they actually had recourse to cranes with caliper hooks. The attachment pits in the individual building blocks do not lie. (The cg position of the pits will help forestall unwanted rotation.)
15 Lorch, the monastery
16 Lorch, the monastery
17 Lorch, the monastery Superannuated, crackly oak leaves. Good for some minor 'chinoiserie'.
18 Anemones and Larkspur Hollow Larkspur [Corydalis cava] and Wood Anemones [Anemone nemorosa]. In always changing patterns. The go-bang of the forest floor.
19 Anemona nemorasa Wood Anemone. Name could be rendered as 'pleasant (looking)'. Modest enough (somewhat in harmony with the flower itself). The variant Latin derivation is somewhat more roundabout. Roughly: the 'animated' spirit of the forest floor. A mild zephyr making short shrift of the last piles of winter snow.
20 Chrysosplenium alternifolium
21 Chrysosplenium alternifolium
22 Chrysosplenium alternifolium Alternate-leaf Golden Saxifrage. Order Rosales. Distantly related with Red Current and Gooseberry. The stamens like the peristyle of a 'Maison Caree'. No true petals, just pale green sepals and some bract leaf semaphoric.
23 Cornus mas at the gate of the monastery Cornelian Cherry Dogwood. Old world shrub unlike Witchhazel with which it could be mistaken from a distance. Shrub comes with standard hermaphrodite flowers. The 'mas' tag is carpentry related. Bloodtwig Dogwood as well as Cornelian Dogwood were once appreciated for their hard wood. - The previous leaseholder of this location was honored by Mörike with a poem. Something about romping children at nightfall.
[Mörike is probably best known for his preserving jars recipes. How to pickle your cucumbers the right way. Bismarck's opinion, if any, is not reported. Not every Biedermeier period is equally well prepared for an encounter with the first world.]
24 Cornus mas
25 Cornus mas
26 Cornus mas
27 Corydalis cava Hollow Larkspur. The use of bird names for sympetalous flowers (or flowers with fused petals, 'fuselage' type flowers for short) is nearly traditional. Dolphin words are also permitted. You may even be allowed to draft Santa stockings or protective headgear. 'Corys', the first part of the Greek tag, is distantly related with 'cranium'. The second part still survives in such memorable households lyrics as: 'alouette je te plumerai'. I am personally unable to discern a 'winged' helmet in this particular flower shape (let alone a crested lark) but I can understand the general train of thought even if it is somewhat overdone in this particular case.
Minor caveat: A corymb is a type of inflorescence which could serve as support for a smoked glass table top. Tell a chapter of bike riders to climb on appropriate footstools and you will get there. Particular helmet color is of no importance. [The term 'summit meeting' might cover both aspects of the Greek root.]
I cannot...
28 Corydalis cava
29 Corydalis cava
30 Glechoma hedera Plenty of Ground Ivy. Gargle water for sore throats, one hallelujah too many, or is there a connection with brewing (secondary name: ale hoof). Somewhat suspicious.
31 Glechoma hedera
32 Viola odorata Sweet violet. Same order as zuchini and pumpkins. It is tempting to detect some similarity with the staminate flowers of pumpkins. The close packed yellow stamens bundles. A tribe of very strong ants carrying away a hole pumpkins might clinch it.
33 Viola odorata
34 Lorch, fall still there, fall batch
35 Lorch, fall Canadian Golden Rod
36 Lorch, fall Foreground, a contribution from the local arts and craft shop: 'soul steles'.
37 Lorch, fall
38 Lorch, fall Either a surf board or a pivoted ironing board. Could also be a tail fin. Unidentified sand, sun & sea logo. Backdrop, Schurwald.
39 Lorch, fall Marsilius tower, the Latin number in the scalloped part should read 1883.
40 Lorch, fall Ora et labora. Iron gate to the herb garden with fretwork style silhouettes.
41 Verbascum nigrum Dark Mullein, unbranched spikes
42 Verbascum nigrum trademark, the orange-red hair cover of the stamens. (Not sure if it is enough to evoke a woolly rhino.)
43 Liriodendron Do I smell witchcraft. What does a New World tree sapling do in a 12th century herb garden. Liriodendron tulipifera (Tulip Poplar)or kin.
44 Tradescantia virginiana Virginia spiderwort, likewise introduced. Lily tribe (parallel veined leaves and 3x flower diagram). Sometimes also called 'three mast' flower.
45 Helanthus On cultural loan from Mehico. Some concentric Gaillardia grandiflora coloring of the ray petals.
46 Hellianthus
47 Osteospermum ecklonis Veldt Daisy Purple. The Latin genus name refers to the 'bonehead class', indehiscent sunflower type seeds. The Bougainville type species name is due to a veldt traveling pilgrim. Those Staufic monks certainly got around. - Some clairvoyant properties. Care has to be taken to couch the questions in binary code.
48 Calendula arvensis Field Marigold, Lorch Götztal
49 Calendula arvensis
50 Calendula arvensis color by numbers version
51 Lorch, fall Sculptural fire escape. Backdrop, fire hydrant. Some monasteries come with all the extras.
52 Lorch, fall either a giant toadstool or a fire hydrant
53 Lorch, fall Background colored dish antenna in the dormer window of the tithe barn. Offset mount. The overhanging roof might impair the reception somewhat. Equinox shadow test at midday. (Or ray tracing: 48,8 deg N. latitude).
54 The Imperium Romanum ends here Tentatively reconstructed Roman watchtower (just on the other side of the parking lot in front of the monastery). The location will have called for some kind of belvedere anyhow. - [The Saalburg in the Taunus is still the best reconstructed Roman camp of this whole Limes stretch. An isolated fortification simply cannot replace a theme show.]
55 The Imperium Romanum ends here 'comminus', doing hand to hand combat with an unpruned apple tree
56 The Imperium Romanum ends here comminus
57 The Imperium Romanum ends here comminus
58 The Imperium Romanum ends here on an all wooden flight deck. Plenty of runway in every wind rose direction.
59 The Imperium Romanum ends here rapid wing beats, warming up
60 The Imperium Romanum ends here Hyrcanian Forests. A string of conic mountains can be made out to the South. Nearly predestined for future Staufer castles. Most likely the remnants of long extinct volcanoes. Those that exploded and those that just solidified in place. The whole region can still come up with a few seismic quakes. (Best to keep on eye on chained gas station signboards if you do not want to miss one). A tyro from Pompeii might have made the connection.
61 Lorch, Stadtkirche The knight at the organ. (Knight as well as organ are post Staufic.)
62 Lorch, Stadtkirche Tabernacle
63 Lorch, Stadtkirche a prime mover at work
64 Lorch, Stadtkirche Encounter with a human faced lion and a beaked snake.
65 Lorch, Stadtkirche The dire consequences of a missing Franklin stove (improved flue). - I never liked the story very much. Cain gets away with a mere slap on the wrist. Minor misdemeanors were certainly punished much more harshly. (Say salvaging a bit of fanciful Canaanite booty from wanton destruction.) Capricious where it counts.
66 Adelberg monastery, Ulrichskapelle About the same distance to the ancestral Hohenstaufen castle as Lorch but Schurwald location. The waters of the Herrenbach flow in the Fils direction. The monastery enjoyed Staufic patronage. Alma mater ties. No sports facilities but other kinds of donations. Adelberg was looted in the peasant uprising of 1524/25. Some safeguard measures. Legend knows of a large number of secret escape tunnels. The occupants apparently did see the writing at the wall. There was no escape from Ulrich's subsequent land reform. The building itself, stripped of its outlaying holdings (a 100 miles radius would probably not be too small), became an administrative and educational center of the Reformation. Peer verdict, private equity side, it shows good manners to preserve something of the core substance.
67 Adelberg monastery, gateway looks like bishopry insignia
68 Schurwald well and water trough
69 Butterhof Adelberg holding, Remstal
70 Butterhof Adelberg holding, Remstal. Timeline: Ulrich was reinstalled in 1534 after the victorious Battle of Lauffen. (The pro-Austrian side lost.)
