Fachwerk in Melsungen and the Animal park nearby

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Today's schedule included a look at the historic Fachwerk houses in Melsungen and then coffee and cake mid morning, this is Germany and that's like compulsory!
Once we got back to the smaller village outside Melsungen where i am staying, we went for a 5 minute walk to an animal park. Welll actually it was a 25 minute walk to the animal park through a nice forest path and along a little road accompanied by rain at times. Found some ripe blackberries and had a little taste....memories of childhood and picking them around Ashburton!
Melsungen's history goes back many thousands of years but real habitation began around the late 1100's with people living and working in this area as workers in the nearby forests.

The church is one of the oldest buildings in the area with some parts of it still existing from 1230. It was a Catholic church in the beginning and like many of them in the time of the Reformation in the 1500's, changed to being protestant with the removal of statues, altars, pictures of saints and ornate features associated with many Catholic churches. Tombstones from the 1500's surround the walls of the church, of the important people of the area from that time.

Fachwerk houses are a feature of many homes in Melsungen. They have a crisscross wood pattern on the outside walls painted a dark colour, with bricks under the wood facade which is painted a lighter contrasting shade. Some houses are really narrow and some lean in towards other buildings. Most are well looked after and restored and the centre of the town has many little streets of these houses with cobble stones, little cafes and water features and fountains everywhere. Very pretty and quaint.

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Photos

Fachwerk houses
This is an architectural style of building

Fachwerk houses
Very original, with brickwork, wood facade and interwoven wood beams on the outside

Council building
The flag of the EU with the stars indicating the number of participating countries

Narrow house
The width of the house is about the length of a mid size car

Leaning buildings
This has a lean of about 30 degrees to the right, hard to see

Original stained glass
Depicting the Virgin Mary with child visiting her cousin Elizabeth also pregnant with John the Baptist, the window was taken away from the church in the time of the reformation and is on display now in the foyer

Tombstones
This one was from the 1590's to commerate the deaths of 3 infants from the Köhler family

The Bridge
REbuilt after the bombing in WWII dating from the early 1300's

A Forest worker
Bartenwetzer-Brücke statue

Some animals
Baby donkey oh so cute

Monkey's
Baby with Mum with another female in the same area and a silverback who was the dominant feature.

South American
Related to the ostrich and emu and cassowary and the extinct moa from NZ