Hanover and Landesmusuem

Posted on 30 June 2024 by boryssnorc

Literally around the corner from our hotel was Hanover’s famous art museum, the Landesmuseum. Naturally, we knew we could spend a few hours there checking out numerous artworks, the likes of which would get an entire wing dedicated to them should even one of these pieces be in a museum back home!

St Peter,
Evert van Roden (attributed)
Münster, c 1460

Madonna Enthroned
Lower Saxony, c. 1180 Linden wood, originally painted.

Death of Mary, Lower Saxony, c.1300/1310, Oak
The altarpiece from the former Augustinian convent in Wennigsen has only a few surviving panel paintings from the early 14thC. The apostles and a bishop have gathered at Mary’s deathbed. In the middle appears Christ, who has descended from heaven to collect Mary’s soul in the form of a small, white-clad figure.

Ten Commandments panel. Master of the Göttingen Jacobi Church Altar, c.1400. Oak.
The wings of this work, were originally mounted on both sides of the central panel, have been lost. Therefore, only six of the ten commandments can be seen. They are recited by God, who appears in a rainbow, and illustrated using stories from the Old Testament.

Christ with the Wise and Foolish Virgins, Lower Saxony, c. 1310-1320, Oak.
The heavenly judge turns to five expectant women with burning lamps. The ladies on the other side, however, are denied the kingdom of heaven. They had managed their finances poorly, and the oil in their lamps had run out before the longed-for bridegroom appeared in the night. The panel admonished the women in the Isenhagen monastery to live a life pleasing to God in preparation for the Last Judgement.

Childhood and Passion of Christ, Lower Saxony or Westphalia, c,1390, oak.
The two panels acquired from the Aegidienkirche in Hanover Münden once formed the wings of an altarpiece, the middle of which has been lost. When opened, the work was almost eight meters wide. The scenes from the life of Jesus are separated from one another by an artfully painted decorative architecture. A differentiated color scheme and a special interest in costume details characterize the painting.

Panel 2

Annunciation to Mary and Coronation of Mary, Masster Bertram Minden, c.1340-1414/14, Hamburg, oak.
The panels formed the outside of the altar on the left. The Annunciation to Mary and her coronation in heaven highlight the importance of the Mother of God in the salvation process. The robes, halos, crowns and angel wings once shimmered in gold and silver, the lions identify Mary as the Queen of Heaven.

Passion Altar, Master Bertram Minden, c. 1340 – 1414/15 Hamburg, Oak.
It is rare to be able to link the painters mentioned in the written reports with surviving works. In northern Germany, Master Bertram is the exception: he came from Westphalia, was familiar with the art of the imperial court in Prague and with the latest painting in the Netherlands, and ran a successful workshop in Hamburg. The altarpiece was probably created in his studio.
Inv.

The Gottingen Barfusseraltar, Gottingen, c.1424, oak and spruce.
St Francis of Assisi’s followers were committed to poverty, as itinerant preachers in towns and cities, they walked barefoot or clad in simple sandals, for that reason they were also know as ‘barefoot friars’ (German: Barfuss).

The Golden Panel
Lüneburg, c. 1420-1430, Oak

The ‘back’ or outside of the Golden Panel… simply stunning.

Arm reliquaries of Saints Valerius and Pancras, Lower Saxony, c. 1150/1175, Lime wood.

Reliquary bust: 1 of the 11,000 virgins Depicted as St Ursula, Lower Saxony (Lüneburg?), c.1300, oak.

Two reliquary busts of the 11,000 virgins, Lower Saxony (Lüneburg?), c.1432, lime wood, silver-plated.

Reliquary box, Lüneburg, 15th, Wood, silver-plated and gold-plated.

Reliquary box, Lüneburg, 15th, Wood, silver-plated and gold-plated.

Reliquary in the form of a book/ ivory tablet from the Romanos group
Lower Saxony, 14th/15th century / Constantinople, around 950, wood, linen fabric, parchment / ivory

Cross base with the resurrected Adam, West Germany, 11th/12th century Bronze, remains of gilding

Two ivory boxes, Sicily or southern Italy, 12th/14th century.

Cain and Abel chest, Lower Saxony, Westphalia, 11th century… c. 1230, oak core,

Enamelled reliquary box, Lower Saxony, Rhineland, Maas region, 12th-13th century, wood, copper, pit enamel, brown varnish

Abraham casket, West Germany, Lower Saxony, c.1025-1050, oak, copper-gilt fittings.

Two bowls for washing hands, Limoges, late 12thC, copper, enamelled, gold-plated
The magnificent bowls bear the coat of arms of the French ruling dynasty of the Plantagenêt. They were originally used for washing hands during courtly table ceremonies. They probably came to Lüneburg via Richard the Lionheart. HOLY SHIT!!!

Leather box, Lower Saxony, around 1300 wood, leather-covered, stamped and then painted.

Portable Triptych Relics, German, c.1432, wood, painted, horn discs.
According to the inscription and coat of arms, the triptych belongs to the foundation of Duke Bernhard I of Brunswick-Lüneburg. A large number of relics are kept behind transparent horn discs, for example pieces of the the Holy Cross, from James the Elder and from the Holy Sepulchre.

Octagonal container,
Italy, 14th C
Leather, parchment, pastiglia

The container covered with colored parchment strips is an extremely rare and beautiful piece. Before it was converted into a reliquary, it may have served as a cover for a drinking cup.

Lambert Altar, Master of the so-called Hildesheim, 12 panels of a Passion Altarpiece, c.1420/30, Oak

Diptych, Lower Saxony (Hildesheim), c.1420, Lime wood

The Tree of Life, c.1400, Master of the Richardson Triptych active in Sama (1370-1418), poplar wood.

Crucifixion Altar c.1506, Hans Raphon (1460-1512), Göttingen or Northeim, lime wood.

Mercy Altar, c,1510/1520, Tilman Riemenschneider (and workshop operating 1460-1531), Heiligenstadt/Eichsfeld, Würzburg, Lime wood.

Family altar, Lower Saxony, c. 1500/1510, Lime wood (?)
St. Anne, Mary’s mother, was particularly popular in the late Middle Ages. A chapel was dedicated to her in the Hanover Kreuzkirche, for which the winged altar was created. Her daughters, grandchildren, husbands and sons-in-law have gathered around the saint. On the wings there are various scenes from her life on the left, and the birth of Mary on the right.

Mother of God Altar c.1510 to 1515,, Hans Raphon, Göttingen or Northeim c,1460-1512 and Bartold Kastrop, Northeim c.1465-1531/1532 Göttingen, oak wood.
The Madonna is based on a copperplate engraving by Albrecht Dürer. His works of art printed on paper quickly spread and were often used as templates by other artists. The altarpiece was created for the Einbeck collegiate church of St. Alexandri,

Rosary altar, c. 1500, South Lower Saxony (Einbeck), oak.
The center of this winged altar is occupied by the Mother of God accompanied by angels.
Mary stands on a crescent moon and is surrounded by a halo of rays; the crown also identifies her as the Queen of Heaven. (I love the facial expression on the guy in the bottom right image)

Christ and Mary on Golgotha, c.1505, Hans Holbein the Elder, Augsburg, (1465- 1524), lime wood.
The thorn-crowned Christ sits on the cross and is mourned by Mary. A moment of pause is captured on Mount Golgotha, which Holbein characterizes as a hilly landscape and makes recognizable by skulls and bones.

John the Ev. and Jacob the Elder, c. 1510, oak
The two saints are deceptively realistic painted sculptures set in a stone architecture made of reddish marble. Such painted sculptures were particularly popular in the Netherlands. They were usually found on the outside of the winged altars, which then unfolded their full splendor of color when opened.

Portrait of a Man, Jakob Elsner, c.1507.
Nuremberg 1460/1465-1517 Nuremberg, Parchment or paper on oak.

Portrait of the Astronmer Johann Schöner, c.1528, Master of the Neudörfer Portraits active in Nuremberg around 1500-1530, Linden wood.

Female Saint, c.1510, Tilman Riemenschneider, Heiligenstadt/Eichsfeld, active 1460-1531, Würzburg,
Limewood, painted in color – the figure is carved from limewood, a material that can be worked in many different ways. The garments form a delicate relief. The carver has masterfully crafted the turban-like headdress, the veil and the wavy hair. Originally a standing figure an early collector sawed off the bottom of the work and converted it into a bust.

John the Baptist and Mary Magdalene, c. 1515, Hans Suess von Kulmbach (1470 – 1522),
Nuremberg, lime wood

The Saints Sebastian and Rochus, c.1518, Hans Suess von Kulmbach, (1470-1522),
Nuremberg, linden wood.

Venus with Cupid, c. 1515-1520, Lucas Cranach the Elder
Kronach 1472-1553 Weimar, transferred to plywood
The painting corresponds entirely to the Renaissance’s renewed interest in the female nude.
Venus appears life-sized. Her skin color and posture are reminiscent of ancient sculptures.

Lucrezia, c.1525, Lucas Cranach the Elder, Kronach 1472-1553 Weimar. Beechwood.

Martin Luther and Katharine von Bora, c.1528, Lucas Cranach the Elder (1472-1553) Weimar, beechwood
In 1525, the former Augustinian monk, Martin Luther married the nun, Katharina von Bora. By marrying, both broke their church vow of celibacy. The portraits became so popular at the time that numerous replicas were soon created.

The martyrdom of the seven sons of Felicitas c. 1530/1535, Lucas Cranach the Elder (1472-1553), Weimar, Oak wood.

Salvator Mundi panel, c.1537, Hans Kemmer (1495- 1561) Lübeck, oak wood.
The woman’s jewelry helps to identify the couple praying to the Savior: it is quite likely that her shoulder amulet shows the heraldic animal of the Lübeck merchant Carsten Timmermann. The couple probably commissioned the painting in memory of a deceased child. It was executed by Cranach’s student Hans Kemmer, who was the leading painter in Lübeck since the Reformation.
Inv.

Portraits of a Donor Couple, c.1520, Bartholomäus Bruyn the Elder (1493-1544), Cologne, oak.

Lucrezia, c.1510, Sodoma (actually Giovanni Antonio Bazzi) Vercelli, 1477- 1549 Siena, poplar wood.

Portrait bust of Grand Ducke Fernando I de Medici, c.158790,
Pietro Francavilla Cambrai (1548 – 1615), Paris, marble.
In antique idealization, the portrait bust shows the third ruler of the younger Medici line, Ferdinando I (1549-1609). Under his leadership, the House of Medici achieved its greatest power and significant influence throughout Europe.

Annunciation to Mary, c.1500/15150, Sandro Botticelli (workshop), Florence 1445 – 1510 Florence, poplar wood. Once developed, compositions were used more frequently in Sandro Botticelli’s studio. The Annunciation angel resembles a painting in the Uffizi in Florence, and the Virgin Mary resembles a painting now kept in London. The work was created for the private devotion of the woman kneeling in front; the black robe and white bonnet identify her as a widow.

St Peter in a wreath of fruit, c.1470-80. Pietro Perugino, (1448-1524), Fontignano, poplar

Adoration of the Child with the Infant Saint John, c.1490.
Sandro Botticelli (workshop), Florence 1445 – 1510, poplar wood.

Portrait of Francesco Alunno, c.1510.
Lorenzo di Credi, Florence 1459-1537 Florence, poplar wood.
The art writer Giorgio Vasari (1511-1574) praised Lorenzo di Credi’s painting style highly: It shows a finesse that surpasses any other painting. This alludes to the smooth texture of the oil painting, which also characterizes the charming portrait of the young scholar. An inscription identifies the person depicted as the lexicographer Francesco Alunno from Ferrara.

The Arrival of Aeneas at Dido’s c. 1460
Apollonio di Giovanni, Florence 1415/1417-1465, poplar wood.
In the 15th century, a bride was led to her new home in a wedding procession. Chests were carried along and used as furniture. The love story of Dido and Aeneas is shown on the chest front. Above, Aeneas arrives in Carthage; on the right, Dido welcomes him in the hall of a temple.

The Banquet and the hunt of Dido, c. 1460
The second chest front shows further events from the Aeneid by the ancient poet Virgil (70-90 BC). On the left, a banquet is being prepared for Aeneas, on the right, the company goes hunting. There, Dido and Aeneas are surprised by a thunderstorm. They flee into a cave, the scene of their night of love.

I can’t believe that I got all the way through adding these photos in, and translating descriptions and adding those in too – and totally forgot the one thing I made a mental note about while I was in the musuem! There are sensors EVERYWHERE in these galleries – and when you step too close to the artworks, a recording comes on, (with music) saying, (in English) quite loud, “STOP IN THE NAME OF ART! Before you break some art!” Kinda to the tune of the song, “Stop in the Name of Love!”, which was equal parts initially alarming, then amusing and eventually annoying. Wouldn’t have been so bad if you only heard it once or twice, but it was going off constantly – and you know why? Because the information plaques are so close to each of the artworks, and some as much as 30cm BEHIND artworks that stood proud of walls, meaning every time some old biddy leaned into to read the descriptions, or some finickity history nerd like me leaned in to take a photo of the descriptions, the damn sensors were triggered and the hideous recording went off. Again and again. It must have been set off over 50 times for the couple of hours we were in there. Never seen such an obnoxious security system in a museum before (unless you count the overly stern and officious ‘Shushhh’ing Nuns of The Vatican Museum’ – those women are seriously obnoxious but unsurprisingly, very efficient!

Aaaanyway… after checking out the medieval galleries of the Landesmuseum, we decided to take a wander through the Maschpark, Historical Garden. Gotta say, Hanover has loads of beautiful green spaces and feels like a very liveable city.

In this prettyish kind of wilderness is an enormous lake full of ducks and probably e-scooters!

the Neues Rathaus – or New Town Hall.

Started to rain, so we decided to bail and leave the very goose looking ducks to their weather.

Bergen-Belsen War Memorial

Posted on 29 June 2024 by boryssnorc

We embarked on a short one hour drive from Hanover to Bergen and a gorgeous drive it is. Through lovely verdant and cool-looking woodlands, with a bright blue and beautiful sky today; fields full of green corn stalks waving in the breeze, and people wandering through potatoes, blueberry and strawberry crops picking their own in baskets to take home. It is an outwardly peaceful and beautiful rural scene, but entering the Bergen-Belsen War Memorial, you perceptibly feel a mood shift.

Some of the images in this post are disturbing.

Bergen-Belsen has a long and complicated history compared to some of the other Nazi camps – it is primarily known as a Nazi Concentration camp in what is today, Lower Saxony in Northern Germany, but It was originally established as a Detainment camp to hold Prisoners of War. By 1943 it had morphed into a full concentration camp for slave labour, and parts of the camp were still being considered as an ‘exchange camp’ where Jewish and Russian hostages were being held with the intentions of exchanging them for German prisoners being held in other countries. The camp was later expanded to hold Jewish prisoners being transferred from other concentration camps as a Receiving and Extermination centre.

After liberation in April 1945, it became a place for Displaced Persons – a place where survivors waited and struggled to find ways to rebuild their lives, or waited for immigration permissions to other countries, or waited while they desperately tried to find lost family. The camp was primarily know for the period that it was used as a concentration camp – 1941 to 1945 – as it was during this period that almost 20,000 Soviet POWs and a further 50,000 inmates died here… died, and/or were killed depending on how you look at it. :/ There was a complete disregard for the requirements for housing of prisoners in accordance with the Geneva conventions and overcrowding, lack of food, poor sanitary conditions and at some periods, complete and utter failure to provide basic shelter caused outbreaks of tuberculosis, typhoid fever, typhus and of course dysentery – which led to a know 35,000 deaths in the first few months of 1945 alone. While these poor souls weren’t executed per se, their results were the results of systemic neglect.

When the British liberated the camp on April 15, 1945, they found 60,000 prisoners contained in the camp (despite efforts from the retreating Germans to do away with as much of the ‘evidence’ of the camp as possible), most of whom were seriously starved and extremely ill. They also found approximately 13,000 corpses laying around the camp that had not yet been buried.

The imposing and extremely solid and heavily brutalist style of the gates and the large Documentation/Education Centres are designed to immediately convey a sense of hardship, immovable weight and even cruelty through architecture – and I have to admit, it’s extremely effective.

The initial POW camp of Fallingbostel was established at the Bergen military training area as early as 1939, inside the Wermacht base. From June 1940, this camp was moved further south to be where the Bergen-Belsen would remain for the duration of the war. It was initially used as a POW detainment centre and by the summer of 1941 the Bergen-Belsen was expanded to include the Oebrle and the Wietzendorf camps to hold Soviet POWs.

The Education Centre feels like an enormous concrete bunker – unyielding, cold, sharp and impersonal.

One of the first things visitors are confronted with is the sheer size of this place. The photograph below was taken by RAAF for British Intelligence – they were aiming to get imagery of the Wermacht Military Base that was known to be just outside the City of Bergen, but unknowingly also gained imagery of the early POW Detainment Camp known as Bergen-Belsen.

From the image on the left, it looks like just an extensive military base, with notations on the right, you can see how close the city of Bergen was to the Concentration Camp, and also how close the village of Belsen was. It is actually on the way from the train station where prisoners would be dropped off and then marched in a straight 6km line directly to the Concentration camp. After the war, civilians would say they had no idea of the atrocities that were happening behind the barbed wire fences, but the camp was so close, the townsfolk could apparently see the ragged and starving people, and many of the them were hired to provide food and supplies for the SS (and presumably the prisoners meagre rations) stationed at the camp. Civilians were threatened and even arrested if they were caught interacting with prisoners, or even for the simple act of throwing food over the fence.

The layout of the camp altered over time, but it largely started out with Russian POWs housed in tents or literally sleeping outdoors regardless of weather. These prisoners were put to work building the eventual layout of the camp seen below. Courtyards were used for roll calls and ‘selection’ mustering – where people were inspected and deemed fit for work duties or selected for ‘injections’ (more on that later).

In summer of 1941, the Bergen-Belsen camp was expanded and held tens of thousands of Soviet POWs, but the spring of 1942, more then 40,000 of them had died due to insufficient food, shelter and medical care, as well as the brutal and ruthless treatment they reactive a the hands of the Wermacht. By April 1943, part of the camp was transferred to the authority of the SS – where things inevitably got worse. From September of that year, Italian military detainees were also being imprisoned at Bergen-Belsen (eventually when Germany and Italy formalised their alliance, these Italian detainees were given citizenship rights, but it didn’t improve conditions for them much at the camp). From Oct 1944, captured soldiers of the Polish Army were also being imprisoned at the Bergen-Belsen POW camp and by January 1945 the SS had commandeered most of the camp as the German Army was being pushed back by the Allied forces.

Inside the Documentation centre, the brutal architecture continues; visitors feel as if they are moving through an enormous cavernous tomb. Below are some of the identification documents belonging to detainees.

It is somewhat counterintuitive that the Nazi party was so driven to precision in their paperwork and administration given that they then were compelled to try and destroy as much of it as possible towards the end of the war. I believe this demonstrates the mindset that they truly thought they were in the ‘right’ in their persecution of the Jews, and that there would be no repercussions for the war crimes they committed at these camps… they didn’t see these documents as ‘evidence’, they certainly didn’t see their detainees as people, they merely saw the paperwork as logistical information for scheduling and resource deployment.

Front page of the office German Wehrmacht magazine of 5 November 1941. The German caption on the bottom right reads: “1000 out 657,848 – According to the Wehrmacht High Command’s report for 19 October – 657,948 prisoners were taken during the double battle of Bryansk and Vyazma. Our photograph shows prisoners being transported from reception camps.”

In April 1943, when the SS took over part of the Bergen-Belsen POW camp, they established a concentration camp for Jewish prisoners. These prisoners were to be exchanged for Germans being held abroad. From Spring 1944, the Bergen-Belsen concentration camp also served as a camp for prisoners from other camps who were no long able to work. From August 1944, female prisoners from Auschwitz were transported to Bergen-Belsen to be then transferred onto other concentration camps as slave labourers. After December 1944, Bergen-Belsen became the destination for evacuation transport for all concentration camps near the front lines – this is where the cattle cars of people and Death Marches were leading to as the Germans were retreating on various fronts.

During the final stages of WWII, Bergen-Belsen concentration camp became a site of mass deaths, as the concentration camps near the front lines were disbanded and evacuated in order to prevent the prisoners being liberated by Allied troops. Due to its location solidly inside the German Reich, Bergen-Belsen becomes one of the main destinations for these evacuation transports. It is estimated that between Dec 44 and April 45, 85,000 men, women and children were taken here on over 100 transports and Death Marches. Conditions at the camp were disastrous – hunger, thirst, overcrowding, disease, and systemic neglect saw at least 35,000 die here in those months. The number of prisoners is an estimate only as just before the liberation, the SS tried to destroy all of the camp’s records to cover up the extent of their crimes. In the final phases of transporting prisoners, lists were rarely kept and new arrivals were not registered, as they had no intention of tracking these people who they believed would soon be dead.

Photographs of Jewish prisoners: there are so many women and children in these pictures.

These photographs taken in the days immediately after liberation of the camp are crushing – thousand died *after* the British arrived due to being so far gone with disease, or being so malnutritioned that feeding them actually caused them great harm. The British were faced with the gut-wrenching job of burying the 13,000 corpses they found stewed around when they arrived as well as burying the hundreds that died each day as they were trying to save them.

Typical records following three Soviet prisoners and their tenure at Bergen-Belsen.

There are not a lot of artefacts at the Memorial, a lot of infrastructure was destroyed by retreating Germans, and the British too because conditions were so unsanitary that it was doing the people more harm than good to be living in the buildings etc. As the camp outlived its concentration camp status to become a Displaced Persons camp – most of the objects that reminded people of the appalling recent history seemed to have been destroyed during that period.

This areas image taken by the Royal Air Force on 17 September 1944 shows the ‘Star Camp’ yard where prisoners are standing on a roll call. During the roll-call, prisoners usually had to line up in rows of five, if they couldn’t stand they would be selected for extermination.

Finds from the site are mostly mundane household objects from the Displaced Persons period of the camp’s history.

Looking down from the upper gallery of the Documentation Centre, the displays are full of the photographs (several of which are in this post) as well as computer terminals where people can come to research the histories of people known to have been deported to or from Bergen-Belsen. There are also extensive immigration records of people leaving here for Israel and the US etc., after the war.

Back outside, the beautiful summer day seems in stark contrast to the bleak and desperate history of this place.

It’s easy to forget that it wasn’t just the Jewish population that were persecuted by the Nazis. This detainment/concentration camp in particular housed a LOT of Russian POWs, most of whom were Christian Orthodox. There are monuments and a small Christina chapel here to honour those of Christian religions.

Between 1941 and 1945, more than 70,000 people died in the Bergen-Belsen POW and Concentration camp. Many victims were buried in mass graves in the grounds of the former camp father the liberation in April 1945. There are currently 13 mass graves and 15 noted individual graves, and over 20,000 victims of the Bergen Belsen POW camp are buried in the Hörsten Cemetery, which is around 600m away from here.

This mound of raised earth in the image below is one such mass grave, filled with the bodies of prisoners that were killed or died of disease and/or malnutrition, at the end of the war. This mound is believed to have the remains of 800 people, and it is only one of 13 around the camp. As you walk through the complex, these burial mounds are scattered throughout in what looks like a normal peaceful parkland, but is anything but.

The Commandant of Bergen-Belsen Concentration Camp – Josef Kramer (10 November 1906 – 13 December 1945). Originally Hauptstrumführer (Commandant) of Auschwitz-Birkenau from May to Nov 1944, he was transferred to Bergen-Belsen from Dec 1944 until its liberation in April 1945. He was nicknamed ‘The Beast of Belsen’ by camp inmates; having been personally responsible for gassing prisoners at Auschwitz, and actively known to have participated in selection roll calls, beating prisoners who resisted, Kramer had a vast reputation for brutality. He was most certainly directly responsible for the deaths of thousands of people.

Kramer, August 1945, awaiting trail.

After the war, many of the former SS staff were tried by the British Military at the Belsen Trials. Over the period in which Bergen-Belsen operated as a Concentration camp, as many as 480 people worked there are guards or members of the commandant’s staff – including 45 women. In Sept-Nov 1945, 45 were tried by the military tribunal in Lüneburg, including the camp’s former commandant, Joseph Kramer and 16 male SS guards, 16 female SS guards and 12 other former kapos. Eleven of the defendants were sentenced to death – including Kramer. The executions by hanging took place barely a month later in December 1945. Fourteen of the defendants were acquitted, and of the remaining 19, one was sentenced to life in prison (but was eventually executed for a different crime), and 18 were sentenced to prison for up to 15 years. By June 1955, most of those sentences were significantly reduced on appeal or plea for clemency (fuck knows how they got clemency!), and all were released. Ten other Belsen personnel were later tried in 1946 and 1948 with five of them being executed – but of the over 480 staff of the camp, most of them disappeared back into civilian life seemingly without serious repercussions for their part in perpetrating war crimes in Bergen-Belsen.

After leaving the Memorial, we decided we needed somewhere a little lighthearted to spend the remainder of the day, so we made our way back. To Hannover and went looking for a beer hall for some ciders and bratwurst maybe. So we made our way to the famous Biergarten Lister Turm.

Which was just what was needed to process and digest everything we had seen today. I’ve visited Dachau, and Auschwitz in the past, so was fully expecting today to be sombre and potentially confronting, so it was good to be able to talk over things with Angus and decompress a bit. I think he learned more about WWII atrocities today than he had in all his years of formal education.

We seemed to have happily arrived in the middle of some sort of local strawberry festival – so cider based cocktails loaded with strawberries were the offering of the day. It was super sweat but went well with some currywurst.

Paderbornerdom

Posted on 28 June 2024 by boryssnorc

Paderborn in a small town on the way to Hanover. It’s known for its beautiful Catholic cathedral – The High Cathedral of St Mary, St Liborious and St Kilian belonging to the archdiocese of Paderborn. The church is built in the late Romanesque and Gothic styles and is at the centre of the town above some springs, called the Pader Springs.. and well, you gotta stop for lunch somewhere! So why not choose a town with a famous medeival cathedral!

The cathedral is dedicated to three saints – namely, the Vigin Mary, St Kilian and St Liborious of Le Mans. Liborious is also the first patron of the city and his bones were brought from France to Paderborn in 836 by Emperor Louis the Pious – as part of what was a traditional relic dispersion. Relics were sent to various regional diocese to provide places/things for parishioners to pay homage and tribute to, and to make pilgrimages to see. I find it rather interesting that the remains of revered saints and religious personages were taken and scattered all over the countryside; the only other group of people who had their remains separated and sent to the four corners of any given kingdom in the medieval period were traitors and high criminals. Figure that one out!

Paradise Portal, done in the Romanesque style, c.1160.

The Paradise vestibule and Paradise portal are in the southern extension of the church. Built in the second half of the 12thC it is now twice as large today as it was in the 1860s. It has been used as a resting space for pilgrims on their way to the Santiago de Compostela, and there are many similar porches on French churches and cathedrals at other pilgrimage churches en route to Santiago.

The Cathedral was rebuilt from the 11thC, along with the Ottonian Imperal place in the region with large vaulted ceilings. The vaults of the Paderborn Cathedral are surprisingly uniform, given its window configuration doesn’t appear to possess the same symmetry… there’s some architectural trickery going on here.

Sadly, there wasn’t a lot of information around the church to explain objects to visitors. But on the other hand, it’s possibly because it’s more of a working cathedral and not a heavily toursited area, so that’s a bonus for the locals.

A decidedly non-medieval looking pulpit. Fair guess to say it was a later addition.

A Bishop Badurad had a crypt built into Paderborn Cathedral, which dates back the 1100AD. Although it was redesigned in the 13thC it remains on of the largest hall crypts in Germany – which is surprising because it doesn’t seem overly large compared to the sorts of crypts you see in France and Italy?

Under the altar of the crypt is an ebony shrine containing the relics of Saint Liborious (in the small box above – we couldn’t access that area).

On the opposite side of the crypt is an anteroom to the Bishop’s Crypt, which is decorated with mosaics from 1935. Though modern, the mosaics create a beautiful space around a gravestone which contains the replics of a Bishop Meinwerk; past the anteroom is the actual crypt of all the Paderborn Bishops. It is this unusually mosaic’d crypt that attracts most visitors to Paderbornerdom. It is actually quite beautiful, and has a decidedly art deco style to it.

At the centre of the Bishops’ Crypt is a Pieta, which is flanked left and right with two enormous bronze plates listing all the names of the Paderborn bishops right up to the 20thC. The bronze plates start with names of Bishops all the way back to the 900s, and the bones of all the previous bishops rest in a collective grave in the floor. It’s incredible to see this historical record going so far back.

The Chapel of St Joseph dates to the 14thC and was initially dedicated to the Three Magi.

The town of Paderborn is really quite cute and very sleepy. The centre of the Marktplaz has a fountain called the Neptunebrunnen Fountain, reminiscent of the Neptune fountain in the centre of Gdańsk. This fountain was originally built in 1730 by Johann Theordor Axer and reconstructed in 1979 by Joseph Rokis.

I love the details in medieval buildings surrounding the Marktplaz… very cool medieval rainbow mosaic.

Onward to Hanover…

Checked into our hotel and immediately went looking for a beer hall… we had decided to skip lunch as we spent too much time in the Cathedral, which put us on the hunt for Hanover’s best currywurst and jagerschnitzel!

Angus was very happy with his wash – my schnitzel was nice, the mushroom sauce was good, but not Heidelberg good… I am going to get mightily sick of the piles of fried potato that comes with every meal (I don’t eat them). Thankfully, we are here smack dab in the middle of erdbereen season – so there’s fresh strawberries everywhere for very cheap! They tasted even better than they looked if that is possible.

Tournai, Waterloo and ABBA, oh dear.

Posted on 14 April 2024 by boryssnorc

We are headed to work in Brussels tomorrow and decided to go via the city of Tournai and the Battlefields of Waterloo. Tournai is a cool little town of about 70,000 people, and it lies in the westernmost reaches of Wallonia, (a province of Belgium which rests right against the French border). It is actually far closer to the French cities of Lille and Roubaix, than it is any other major Belgian city and the primary language spoken in Tournai is French.

Tournai also has the distinction of being the oldest city in Belgium, alongside Tongeren. Surprisingly, its heritage stretches as far back as the 1stC BC. For much of its history, the city of Tournai belonged to France, from the Merovingian kings to the Hundred Years War.

Clovis I, who created France(TM) originated from Tournai and made Tournai as his capital city. Having said that, Tournai’s glory days were in the late Middle Ages when it prospered as a centre for culture and trade.

The Grand Place is the central square (or in this case, triangle) of the town. It is surrounded by gorgeous old buildings that housed the many guilds and merchants of medieval Tournai.

Christine de Lalaing, a governess who rose up and led the people in the defence of the city, against Parma in 1581.

The Notre Dame Cathedral of Tournai is a UNESCO World Heritage listed building, constructed in a high Gothic architectural style. Like many cathedrals that were built and expanded upon in the 12thC-14C, it was built on top of early Roman church ruins.

The building has seen much better days – I think being in such an obscure little town, it has been left to decay over many centuries. There are renovation efforts underway at the moment, and it looks like they’ve been at it for well over a decade – but there are some things that are going to be near impossible to ever restore to their former glory.

Inside, we arrived just after a morning service. Many parishioners were just leaving the church and we noticed there were gas heaters throughout to keep them comfortable – it is about 14-15 degrees Celsius outside, but I swear a good 7-8 colder than that inside.

An interesting model, showing the cathedral’s five famous spires.

This gorgeous pulpit looked like like it could have been carved from a single piece of timber, but there is no information plaques in this church, except for those that were giving a small bit of information about the Roman crypts being worked on at the moment .

The church also contains a beautiful organ in front of this stunning stained glass rose window. All up, well worth popping in to have a look at, especially as we had the place almost entirely to ourselves one the congregants left.

Outside in a footpath, I found this pilgrim’s mark… I’ll have to keep an eye out to see if there are more in town.

The Belfry at the centre of the Square… you can normally go up the belfry, but not today as the visitor entrance was closed by midday.

We found a local place to stop for lunch – have to keep my driver watered. I managed to dazzle the serveurse with my spectacularly bad French! But it was adequate enough to ascertain that yes, the kitchen was open, and to order us some drinks and meals, so … mission accomplished, I guess.

The Parc du Jardin de la Reine… freshly green as the spring brings fresh foliage .

Across from the Parc is the beautiful Pont des Trous – or Bridge of Holes. It is a medieval bridge built in the late 13thC over the River Scheldt and is a typical example of medieval military architecture from that period. I had seen images of it before – and was expecting darkened stones, all covered in moss – seems the town has cleaned it up and I fear it’s lost a lot of its character!

After heading out of Tournai, we drove the 20-odd kms to get to the Waterloo Battlefields. The Domaine of the Battlefields covers

The Lion’s Mound is a monument that stands 40 metres high and was erected between 1824 and 1826 by William I, King of the Netherlands, to commemorate the spot where Prince William of Orange, heir to his throne, is thought to have been wounded while he served as Commander in Chief to the first Corps of Wellington’s army.

The Panorama is a vast, circular building that contains a huge canvas painted in 1912 by Louis Dumoulin, a renowned professional painter whose ‘Panorama du Tour du Monde’ (voyage around the world) was originally presented at the Universal Exhibition in Paris in 1900, before being housed here.

There is a stairway with 226 steps that lead to the top of the Mound, from where the entire battlefield domaine can be see. The lion is protecting a globe, representing the earth and symbolising the return of peace to Europe. Weirdly, it is designed such that you can’t actually see the lion once you are up there.

The panorama has seen better days…

From the top, you can see the entire Battlefield, and markers show were the British, French and Prussian troops were positioned.

There is a very large 2000sqm underground museum, that has been built into the landscape in such a way as to not disturb the important lay of the land above where thousands of soldiers fought and died. This model was created by a civilian who spent 30 years faithfully creating a representation of the battlefield and troop placements.

Inside the museum were many multimedia displays designed to acquaint newcomers (?) to the major players in the political landscape at the time.

Of course – Mr Napoleon was quite prevalent.

There were also displays of pistols, rifles and sabres from the period. I am reminded of Becky Sharp sending her husband off to Waterloo, and him dressed in his least-best uniform with his second best pistol, so she could sell his more costly things if something should happen to him.

Of course, a museum around the Imperial French couldn’t be complete with out a discussion on the revolution and the guillotine’s part in that.

There is so much written on Waterloo – documentaries, novels, TV shows, movies… I’m not going to re-hash it all here, when Wikipedia has everything anyone might want in a neat TL;DR.

This era of history just doesn’t interest me as much as the medieval period… Sean Bean would be disappointed, but there it is.

Some cool political cartoons…

And then suddenly … there was this.
*blink blink*
An unexpected temporary exhibition of ‘50 Years of ABBA from Waterloo to the World’. Interesting long bow drawn there, but… okay. Whatever. *shrug*

These look like some of the same costumes that I saw at the ABBA Museum in Stockholm – I wonder if they’re on loan or they just made some more… we’d never know!

Poor Agnetha – not looking too good here. :/

Much memories, so cool.

Woo-hoo! Back in the late 70s, we thought those little knitted caps were all the rage. Image the complete lack of stage presence an old ABBA video would feel like it has these days.

I still don’t know why they were so huge in Australia… but it is kinda like the P!nk phenomena. Huge down under, way bigger than in Europe or the US. There must be something distinctly Australian that these two diverse performers have tapped into.

More tacky outfits.

And a section on the huge revival in the late 80s, early 90s with the use of so many fabulous ABBA tunes in movies and musicals for the stage. Fun… completely out of place here, but fun.

Salina Turda and Hunedoara Castle

Posted on 13 July 2022 by boryssnorc

I’ve been to exactly one salt mine before (in Poland) and that was a fantastic visit. The underground caverns were huge and the place was set up to teach visitors about the history of salt mining in Europe and how prized it was as a commodity, as well as how it was actually extracted to the surface. This mine was somewhat different.

Salt was first extracted at Salina Turda since antiquity, and the mine continuously provided table salt from the Middle Ages (apparently first documented mentions of this salt mine date back to the 10th and 11th centuries) and was still in use in the early 20th century until 1932.

There are several different chambers open to the public the first of which are the two entrance tunnels – one ‘the OLD tunnel’ is about 700m long and accessed from a small car park and is called the Franz Josef Tunnel. The other is the cunningly named, NEW tunnel which is accessed from a larger newer car park and visitor facility and has only a 180m access tunnel. Yes, bet you can guess which one our hapless guide took us to. :/ To be fair though, he and the driver had never been here before, so I guess we were all pretty chuffed they found the place at all.

One of the main points of interest is the octagonal shaped, ‘Crivac’ room, which houses an enormous which called a ‘crivac’ or sometimes a ‘gepel’. It was pretty rudimentary machinery that was used to lift salt rocks to the surface – the one here presently was built in 1880-1881. This particularly machine is labeled as being the only one of its kind remaining in situ in a salt mine in Romania and possibly in all of Europe. .From the access tunnels, you traverse down some flights of steps to the Franz Joseph Gallery (I can’t see the words Franz Joseph ever written without hearing a thickly accented Austrian art gallery guide at the Kunsthistoiriches also mentioning the Empress Maria Terr-issa!) The steps are old and odd heights and not for the long of foot. This is a conical mine (bell mine). Salt mining in this type of room left behind underground halls of impressive dimensions: 90 metres (300 ft) height and 87 metres (285 ft) diameter. The depth from the mouth of the shafts to the base of the mine is 112 metres (367 ft). A “cascade of salt”, an underground lake, stalactites, and salt efflorescences complete the inert equilibrium of the giant bell. The underground lake is between 0.5 and 8 metres (1.6 and 26.2 ft) deep and occupies about 80 percent of the operating room hearth area. In the center of the lake there is an island formed from residual low-grade salt deposited until the late 19th C.

Now, it houses an odd amusement park having been refurbished to be a tourist centre in 2010 at a cost of $5.6M Euros.

The view from the Franz Joseph Gallery. At the far end you can see the 187 steps in 13 flights of stairs that are required to access the lower areas of the Rudolph mine.

Looking down at the paddle boats from the Gallery… weird. There is even a Ferris wheel down here, an art gallery, a cafe and a gift shop (of course!)Thankfully there is also a lift / elevator – if you do find the stairs difficult (and ffs when there is 187 of them, who doesn’t?) you can wait in line for the lift. The lift takes about 35 seconds to get from bottom to top and vice versa and fits only 7 people at a time, so during busy times you could have quite a wait. Thankfully for us, it wasn’t particularly busy this morning and the wait was barely two minutes. There is no mention on Trip Advisor or the website or any bloody google-able page as the existence of this lift… it’s kinda alluded to, but in a ‘you might be able to use it?’ kinda way. So it wasn’t until we got here that I discovered I’d actually be able to go in.

Worryingly… there is a disclaimer by the elevator saying that the management takes no responsibility if the lift stops working! It’s hard to get a feel for the vast size of this space. The enormous Rudolf Mine is 42 metres deep, 50 metres wide, and 80 metres long. It is the last place in the mine where salt was extracted in Turda. Rudolf mine is the last place where salt was mined in Turda.

On the northwestern ceiling, you can see enormous salt stalactites that are as much as 3m long… though you can’t get that from these photos at all.

Well worth a visit in my opinion and was certainly something different from the usual church tours we’ve been doing in each town.

After the salt mine it was back on the bus – to be sure tours like this involve plenty of bus trips, but I’m honestly not sure how many more bus trips I can spend in close proximity to the particularly odious Annoying American we have in this small group. Ten is a great group size to travel with, not too big, but when you’re on a small commuter bus, suddenly ten feels way too small and you can’t get away from each other. AA has this habit of listening to her music and singing along (no, she can not sing, but that isn’t what is so offensive, it’s just the disjointed noises of someone trying to sing along when they obviously don’t know the words that is so annoying). And when she’s not singing she’s watching comedy videos and laughing out loud at full voice… honestly this woman has no inside voice, no inner monologue and if I have to hear her saying “I need to go potty, Mr G?”, one more time, I’m going to go stark raving mad. She’s just so damn inconsiderate. At the salt mines, she just fucked off – didn’t tell anyone where she was going and when we were all ready to leave we were stood around like idiots wondering where the hell she was… several jokes about 10% attrition was considered industry norm were bandied about. But it turns out she whipped in and out of the mine super quick and the decided to go looking for local shops – without telling anyone and not replying to the WhatsApp group messages. Several of the young people on the tour had already had more than their fair share of her bullish behaviour and complaint emails have already been sent by several to the tour office to try and have her reprimanded or something as it seemed Georgi was none too keen to be confronting her. Me? I’m just biding my time until it’s my turn to write a letter – and we all know how those go.

Anyway, where was I? Back on the bus and off to Hunedoara to see the famous castle variously called Corvin’s Castle, Hunyadi Castle or Hunedoara Castle (I know not why). This castle is one of *the* largest castles in Europe. It is considered one of the ‘Seven Wonders of Romania’ – though apparently so are the salt mines, so two in one day is pretty good going.

It sure looks pretty – pretty fantastical that is. The castle was originally designed for this site in the mid-15thC and was partially built between 1440-1446. Building continued on it in 1458-1480 and then there was a huge building spurt on the place in the 17th century and even more done in the 19th century – the result of which is a hodge-podge of ‘architectural improvements’ rather than any determined or cohesive intent to keep building a 15thC castle. There were the obligatory dungeons complete with torture implements which were very easily accessible right at the front of the castle, being directly off the portcullis entrance tower. I don’t know what it is about seeing dummies in medieval castles that immediately sets your expectations for a less than informative visit. That and people dressed in medjieval clothing – which this place had (one guy in Rus pants, a 14thC men’s shirt, a 15th Burgundian pouch and a seax on his belt… should have nabbed his photo). Anyway, it was still fun even if I knew the entire place had burned down in 1876 and the current castle is effectively a fanciful recreation of some modern architect’s idea of what it should look like. Gothic-Renaissance castle bits ahoy…Turrets and gargoyles…

The Legend of the Well

It is said that the well was dug by three Turkish prisoners, to whom lvan of Hunedoara promised their freedom if they found water. Hoping to be free, the prisoners dug in rock for 15 years and at 28 meters deep they manage to find the precious water. In the mean time lvan of Hunedoara had died and his wife, Elisabeth Szilagyi decided not to respect her husband’s word, and instead decided to kill the three

prisoners. As a final wish the three Turks asked the permission to write on a piece of stone in the well an inseription

that said: “You may have water, but you have no soul”, as a reproach for a promise given but not kept. It’s lovely in here and I imagine it’d be great to hold events etc., but it is so bothersome looking around and knowing very little of it is original or even in keeping with the original plan for the castle. Now this looks like a perfectly SCA throne.

After wandering through the castle we all congregated near the long drawbridge, with was out timed collection point – only to find once more that fucking AA had fucked the fuck right off. No one knew where she had gone, where she was or when she’d be back. We stood around getting crosser by the moment knowing this would cut into our time in Sibiu tonight. When she eventually resurfaced, not even an apology just a ‘Oh I went for a walk down by that creek (the moat) and laid down and had a nap. I feel so much better after having my nap, you guys!’ Well, you can imagine the deadpan reception that declaration received and the guide, he just kinda stammered through a ‘Emily, you really shouldn’t wander off like that.’, and quickly shuffled us all onto the bus. Jesus – if that was me and that was my job I’d be giving her both barrels… as it was I pointedly said to her, ‘Thank you for keeping us all waiting, no one knew where you were – you could have been dead in a ditch.’ *mutter mutter*

Anyway, after visiting our fantasy castle we had another drive to Sibiu where we were staying for the night. Now in Sibiu we were supposed to be going to the Brukenthal Palace (which is a museum), the City Square , the Holy Trinity Cathedral, of the Holy Apostles Peter and Paul Church – all of which were closed by the time we arrived… So we checked into our hotel and AA must have been wondering why no one messaged her to make a dinner plan with her, here. Cos OMG did the little turd have a massive dummy spit on the group chat! Wheedling, cajoling, then abusing everyone and attempting to gaslight everyone. Without coordinating anything and without being aware of what the others were doing – it turns out nearly everyone on the tour wrote complaints about her that night (and Georgi didn’t get off Scott free either – it’s his job to herd the cats and he most certainly was failing to herd that one!)