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Darmstadt, Fürstenbahnhof, pasta with chantarelle
Ernst Ludwig House at Mathildenhöhe
Town hall
1. Poster of the city on fire in 1944
There are so many beautiful mosaics at Mathildenhoehe, that I wanna share them as well with you in this special tip.
foto 1: wedding tower: the kiss
foto 2: mosaic Nische
foto 3: Schwanentempel
foto 4: Wedding Tower (outside near the entrance)
foto 5: Wedding Tower entrance hall
In the general section I already mentioned that Darmstadt was heavily bombed and most of what had been a beautiful old town was destroyed. Only some city districts we have half timbered-houses.
BUT: as Darmstadt is close to one of the official scenic or vacation roads, the German Half-Timbered House (Framework) scenic road, it is only a hop in car or bus or on the bike to go to Dieburg or Groß Umstadt, which are located on the southern Hesse part of this road.
Groß Umstadt is located east of Darmstadt, at the slopes of Odenwald hills and called “Weininsel”, which means wine island. I was a bit amazed about this, as the region is not at all known for wine, but local colleagues told me that the wine is not that bad. I will give it a try in summer. The village is quite old, already Romans settled here in 2nd century AC. During Medieval times, it was reigned by dukes, who built several noble courts, some of which are still intact today. The beautiful Renaissance City Hall (main photo and details in photo 5) was built in 1596 and has been restored very beautiful. Around the market square, some lovely half timbered houses are grouped, among them one which hosts a local bank. I found the sign (photo 4) so cute, as it has a memory to our good old Deutsche Mark days – a Pfenning is hanging over the bank icon (the S).
Groß Umstadt’s website shows where all of the half timbered houses are located, and I can tell you that they are all beautiful and worth a walk around in town. It must be quirky and fun in summer, when all the restaurants (there are many) have their tables and chairs outside.
Coordinates on GoogleEarth:
49°52’N; 08°56’E
The wedding tower is one of the symbols of Darmstadt. It was built in 1905 in memory of the marriage of the Grand Duke Ernst Ludwig to Princess Eleonore zu Solms-Hohensolms-Lich by Josef Maria Olbrich, one of the famous Art nouveau architects. It is possible to visit the indside. We were a bit lazy and took the lift upstairs to the viewing platform, downstairs we took the stairs to have a look in the different rooms in each etage.
St. Maria Magdalena - Russische Kapelle = even the name conjures up distant images for me. Known locally as the Russian Chaple - this great beauty was built in 1897 - 1899 the architect Louis Benois must have been a very gifted person to create such a masterpiece. Tzar Nikolaus ll married Alexandra a German Princess from Darmstadt and wanted a Church built here so he would have some place familiar to worship when he visited Darmstadt. I could have stayed seated on the little bench forever, transfixed as if caught in a spell, absolutely charmed and enchanted by the magnificent detail. The Chaple for me seemed to jump staight out of a story book and will remain a fairy tale memory in my heart.
The castle in the center of Darmstadt was once the residence of the ruling Landgraves or Grand Dukes, and is now used mainly by the Technical University.
In the building there is also a Castle Museum showing how the Landgraves and Grand Dukes used to live.
Second and third photos: Cyclists at the Castle.
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