Date(s): 2008. Photos by Aymar. 1 - 25 of 25 Total. 2907 Visits.
1 Rottenburg Silhouette of the cathedral spire of St.Martin against a mackerel sky. Foreground screen: Sambucus nigra (Black-berried Elder). An airborne Montgolfier would have enhance the overall effect.
2 Rottenburg This spire comes with everything, even an elevated 'widow walk'. The projecting crockets (mini gargoyles?) and the tiered tracery are particularly striking. Topped by a showy finial and a weather van.
3 Rottenburg The pinnacle shaped, richly finialed market fountain dates from 1470. Sponsored by Mechthild, the mother of Eberhard im Barte. Backdrop, the Baroque town hall from 1735. Formerly probably flagged by a two headed eagle. Rottenburg was in the Austrian fold until Napoleonic times.
4 Rottenburg Vanishing point in the sky. - The way the top pinnacle of a cathedral tower might look like (minus the water works) if you were allowed to walk the impromptu scaffold of a glacier.
5 Rottenburg Sun dabbled royalty. Probably king Ruprecht. If you sponsor a market fountain you can put your ancestors into it.
6 Rottenburg
7 Rottenburg lady of the heart
8 Rottenburg Non functional gargoyle making faces (somewhat gratuitous, gilding the rose).
9 Rottenburg A representation of Charles V is most likely if the inn is called Kaiser(hof). A mere duke would not do. Some room for error. The coat of arms has been weathered away. In any case the flamboyant head plumage of a lansquenet commander. The bottle corks (Nike shoes) are a recent addition.
10 Rottenburg An aqueduct fragment on a green meadow. Guide board wisdom: The original aqueduct had a total length of 7,2 km. Calculated flow through rate was a respectable 76 liters per second.
11 Rottenburg Part of the Roman sewer system Timeless: Sewers are usually not on the top of the list of things conquerers want to rubble. Why bother. Sewers will get clogged up all by themselves if you just wait long enough. (The sewer was not brought into the museum, the museum was built right on top of it.) This segment may also have been part of a public lavatory. (Somewhat distracted. A background discussion on the merits of the latest spelling reform. And the world was transparent - fistulate luxuriate run.)
In passing: nobody seems to know what 'Sumelocenna' actually means. Everything from 'Celtic deity' to 'blue valley' has been advanced. (Warning voice, the 'Blue Danube' slot is taken.) On the claque level, salmonella post 'cena' or summa larceny. Heroically (as in lottery ticket): extension of Gaelic 'snáilceach' (=pleasant), patterned on 'locus amoenus'. (Dead end: 'glenn'=valley.)
12 Rottenburg The word 'am-phora' refers to the two carrying handles. Possible rendering, two eared. A worn down form of the selfsame unit term is 'Eimer' = 'bucket'. Blatant example for the hinterland influence of Greek emporium towns (Massilia). The competing 'bucket' term, in some places still a 'belly' word, may have originally referred to wine skins. - Some of the vessels in the display are flat bottomed, others spiked (convenient for setting the thing up in a sand pit, the somewhat different kind of rubber foam Ikebana).
13 Rottenburg Rottenburg is not Neaples. Monumental sculptures from Roman Times should not be expected. Potsherds, objects from ordinary life and supplementing dioramas have to do. Details: The crane could be operated either by winch or by treadmill. Something what looks like strenuous sawing. A pit saw would hardly be out of place. Some inscription on the wall next to the barred door (under construction?). An incomplete truss roof. No bracing of the lateral forces. To the right, calisthenics next a clover shaped wading pool. The weathered down pool basin still exists. Exhibit in front of the museum. (Minus the Terpsichore ladies. Dog walking entropy.)
14 Rottenburg Detail: The displayed distaffs indicate some spinning activity. First take, Tupperware party. The better windows come with flower boxes. Street level: some of the pitfalls of setting up your sale stalls in an arcade. Whatever it takes to come up with an action movie.
15 Rottenburg In the foreground, the remains of the Romain wading pool (just one of the clover arms). The previous diorama, patio view, should be understood as an educated guess of how it once looked. Backdrop, a row of sculptures and a Jupiter-Giant column.
16 Rottenburg Hermes-Mercury statue. With money bag and goat. Some possible free mason lore, the snake staff (caduceus) maybe excepted.
17 Rottenburg The handshake. Original inscription: Concordia. Actual context has been lost.
18 Rottenburg The old moat. Tower with conic roof (the tiling looks recent) and loopholes.
19 Rottenburg Quiet corner with house to house clothes lines.
20 Rottenburg Forge iron balcony (Bon Marché time). Semiramis has just left. Technically: Color mix of fire and foliage.
21 Rottenburg
22 Rottenburg River house, actually an inn, with canopied saint corner. - Rottenburg became in the 19th century the tacitly acknowledged center of the annexed Roman Catholic parts of Württemberg. A safe distance away from the heretical and industrial Stuttgart. Diocesan town seat since 1828. The Austrian past did help.
23 Rottenburg The upper reaches of the Neckar. I would be tempted to call it the quiet Don. In any case in rather placid mood. The muddy color an indication of recent rainfalls. Sedimentation should be able to take care of that. A far better track record than any invisible hand. River barges are conspicuous by absence.
24 Rottenburg Mondrian window with red shutters. Chessmen overlay permitted. The potted plant could be a Dieffenbachia (variegated leaves).
25 Rottenburg Once elegant door. The waste water piping looks retrofitted.
