rudelsburg und berg saaleck (13. 877)

The landscape reminding me a lot of the Rhein and the its valleys, particularly for its castles and viniculture, we arrived at our base camp to the explore the Saale-Unstrut region, a part of Germany we’ve regularly passed through but hadn’t devoted much time or attention to previously, finding a spot along the river, behind the limestone escarpments between Bad Kösen and the ruins of the Rudelsburg. Fortified around the mid-ninth century at the commission of a local bishop to secure trade and for border control, like its Hessian counterparts, archeological studies suggest it was the expansion of a defensive settlement occupied since the Bronze Age, the castle was first besieged in 1348 during a territorial dispute in the first documented case of gunpowder in Germany. 

 

No longer regarded as impenetrable, as was the fate with castles in general, it was rebuilt several times over the centuries as a symbol of power, though one expensive to maintain and eventually allowed to fall into disrepair. The masonry of the keep were ordered to be torn down and used for reinforcement elsewhere but a debilitating accident befell the owner, who took his ordered demolition as a bad omen, currying disfavour and decided to the ruins stand, the profile from the sixteenth century more or less remaining to this day, preserved by romantically-minded fraternities from the nearby university cities of Leipzig, Jena and Halle. An enterprising caretaker of the desolate grounds in the 1830s revitalised popular interest after offering food and drink for passing hikers, prompting citizens of the Naumburg to petition the barons von Schönberg to turn it into a official gastronomic destination and venue for visitors. A repast at the Rudelburg by the King Of Prussia, Friedrich Wilhelm IV, during a large-scale military exercise solidified the locale’s prominence and as a meeting place for students’ corps, a society for tolerance and pacifism that rejected parallel movements during the lead ups to the first and second World Wars. A series of monuments were installed in the mid 1870s, taking a cue of public sentiment following the restoration of the Wartburg, including an obelisk honouring Wilhelm I, the Löwendenkmal in memory of fraternity brothers killed in the wars and young Otto von Bismarck seated with his dog, a early pledge to the society. With many of these memorials facing destruction during the East German era, the group relocated from Bad Kösen and the Rudelberg to Würzburg and the Marienburg.

We took a short hike around the river’s bend to the twin Turme, architecturally related to Schloss Thurant, of Burg Saaleck—erected as a counter-foundation to the neighbouring episcopal, elevated to a knight’s estate before becoming quarry for the farmers of surrounding villages. Ultimately saved by the romanticisation of its neighbour and former foe, Burg Saaleck took a quite different trajectory in modern times after a tower served as the final refugee of the murders of Walther Rathenau, minister of reconstruction of the Weimar Republic and a signatory of the Treaty of Rapallo, in an attempt to overthrow the government—which eventually succeeded—the site became a sort of pilgrimage destination for Nazi-sympathisers but the memorial was removed in 2000 by the local pastor with the help of the Bundeswehr. Hiking trails from the campsite also led to a half-completed bridge over the Saale, a stone marking a ghost birch (no longer there) and the Johannisquelle, the pump-house and mill spring for the baths of Bad Kösen, first discovered in 1725 and covered in an Art Nouveau style pavilion in 1909.

synchronoptica

one year ago: Je t’aime... moi non plus (with synchronoptica), slowing light speed,  more esoteric programming languages, artistic idioms, assorted links to revisit plus the many anniversaries of SNL

two years ago: Texas Chainsaw Massacre plus a last day on the Havel 

three years ago: the death of Pope Pius XII plus more links to enjoy

four years ago: Barbarella (1968), ancient animation, a Coming Out simulator plus a declassified map of nuclear targets

five years ago: the micronation of Rose Island

six years ago: an appreciation of the Smiley Face, a system for coding emotional facial reactions,  St Gummarus plus the debut of Saturday Night Live (1975)

seven years ago: more on the moons of Jupiter plus the better letterer’s corner

eight years ago: päntsdrunk,  more on Coming Out Day, the technical mastery of chindōgu, a moon moon plus The Secret Life of Plants

 

thüngen und gambach (13. 591)

 

Afterwards, we traveled to the market town of Thüngen, whose name is derived from the Old Germanic word Thing, þing, ding for an assembly place and placed on to a knightly family (see previously), on the river Wern. There is an ensemble of Schlosses including the old hospital palace and warehouse but in private hands, it was not really possible to get a good view of the castles from the street other than the Orangerie at the entrance.

Driving a little further on, we returned to a constituent community of Karlstadt, Gambach, just beyond the vineyards and hiked up a geological trail, populated with lizards and snakes though we didn’t encounter any, that showed the limestone strata of the epochs forming the hills now given over to viticulture. A top the Weinbau was a chapel and a Lourdes Grotto, constructed in 1958 for the hundredth anniversary of the Marian apparition in France and inspired by a local war veteran’s pilgrimage to the Occitan site in the Pyrenees (see also), grateful for surviving World War I and praying for intercession to stop the landslides that threatened to destroy the wine harvest, promising to build the shrine.

mare e monti (13. 480)

 

Driving to the clifftop of Col de la Croix in Osani, we took a hike down the verdant slope through the nature reserve of the peninsula of La Scandola, the oldest on the island and included in the UNESCO registry, down in the direction of the gulf of Girolata. There are three such “mountain and sea” trails in Corsica and our short walk was only a tiny portion of the system of long-distance trails along the western coast.

Though we didn’t quite make it to the isolated, former fishing village—touted by boating excursion operators as an abandoned pirate town, most of whom are not allowed to lay anchor there, we discovered, and so a little suspect as a tourist trap—accessible otherwise only by foot, we nonetheless had a very nice walk through the woods punctuated with stretches of marquis shrubland of savanna-like evergreens, myrtle and oleander—called machja in Corsican, the ground cover gives off a distinctive piney aroma, and discovered a pebble beach in one of the coves which we had all to ourselves, sharing it only with a couple of sedate cows.  

stradi di e calanchi (13. 468)

Travelling west down the Route of the Calanques, narrow, steep coastal inlets, along the Gulf of Porto, passing many fantastical and breathtaking rock formations along the way, negotiating on-coming traffic, tour buses and those parked in the middle of the single carriageway road to marvel at the view, we stopped at the entrance to a hiking trail that began with the monolithic Tête du Chien (Head of the Dog). We progressed along a mostly forested path through a landscape that was at times otherworldly, like this hollowed out boulder that resembled Yoda’s dwelling on Dagobah, following an ancient trail used by mules and required some climbing to reach the cliff top called Castellu di Ghineparu—not a castle but a plateau with incredible vistas of the Mediterranean and valley below. 

Afterwards we went on to the small village of Piana, listed among France’s most beautiful and dating from its rebuilding in late fifteenth century, caught up it the territorial struggle between the Republics of Pisa and Genoa centuries before and abandoned and falling into disrepair—only resettled once Genoa took control of the whole island and were motivated to keep the Barbary pirates at bay. 

As with the whole of Corsica, during World War II, it was a stronghold of the resistance and Piana was a staging location for the covert Opération Pearl Harbour in 1942 to arm and organise and prevent the Axis powers from obtaining another base of operation in the region, sponsored with coordination by the American’s and codenamed for the attack in Hawaiʻi from the year before. In the centre of the village is l’Église l’Assomption (Ghjesgia di l’Assunta) dedicated to Sainte-Maire with multiple shrines.

synchronoptica

one year ago: the engineering of wine bottles (with synchronopticæ), closed-captioning plus a return to the Saale valley

seventeen years ago: climate change mitigation 

bamberger bürgerpark (13. 396)

Taking a short stroll through the village of Bug, we crossed the bridge south of the city to the massive public green space bordered by the Main-Danube canal and the Regnitz called the Theresienhain and took a long walk around the park’s perimeter. 

 The Franciscan order was donated the village palace with its mansard roof for its missionary work in India and Sri Lanka, the former royal forestry office of the Kingdom of Bavaria—and is the only branch of the brotherhood in operation in Germany. 

Designed in the style of Munich’s English Garden in 1803, the commission of Maximilian I, the area was preserved during renovations and expansion of the inland waterway and shipping channel, and the forest, rewilded, true to the route that writer ETA Hoffmann took through the Hain on his brainstorming walks for inspiration, and is dotted with pavilions, monuments (including one to the author himself) and a so called druid temple, Monopteros (see also) as well as sports facilities and a botanical garden. 

We stopped at a former boathouse that was converted into an open air tavern and sampled some more beers as a band played before returning to the campsite.