malerwinkelhaus (11. 038)

Having set up camp at the ferry crossing at Eschendorf at the bend, loop in the wine-growing escarpment on the Main River (der Mainschliefe by Volkach), we traveled a bit further into Franconia through County Kitzingen and passed some familiar places including the ancient trading port of Marktbreit (previously)—important as the southernmost point and shortest natural connection between the Rhein-Main-Donau before the canals were built—and saw the picturesque Haus am Maintor, constructed in the late 1700s on the bridge next to the Rathaus as a merchant’s warehouse (like the mercantile exchange along Erfurt‘s Kramerbrücke). 

Over the centuries, the building was a spice emporium, green grocers, hair salon—ultimately named for a cafe opposite that acknowledged the view had been a favourite subject of painters for a long time. Now the Malerwinkelhaus hosts a museum on the history of Markbreit, including artefacts from a rather unexpected archaeological find from 1985—one of the first discovered by aerial surveys in the form of a completed and fully stocked castrum legionarium. Finished but never occupied, no one expected to find a Roman defencive outpost that far behind the Limes and in hostile territory and it is speculated it was abandoned after Varus was defeated in the battle of Teutoburger Forest in 9 AD.

 synchronoptica

one year ago: The Tornados’ Telstar plus assorted links to revisit

two years ago: The Final Programme (1973)

three years ago: the Feast of Francis of Assisi, cross-section infographics plus Sir David Attenborough as insects

four years ago: a pastel makeover for London’s subway carriages,  cinnamon-roll day plus award-winning laundromats of Japan

five years ago: a sketch a day for October, the International Geophysical Year plus Bavaria’s plans for a Space Force of its own