Fotoeins Fotografie

Fotoeins Friday: Koblenz “Hygiea” Jugendstil heritage

By HL fotoeins on 18 Mar 2016

In Koblenz’s Altstadt, the building now at Firmungstrasse 11 between Jesuitenplatz and Josef-Görres-Platz is one of many in the list of “Kulturdenkmäler” or cultural monuments, as compiled by the Generaldirektion Kulturelles Erbe (General Directorate for Cultural Heritage) in the state of Rheinland-Pfalz.

Built in 1903 for the chemist/pharmacist Fritz Oetelshofen, the building is a three-story cladded row-house with mixed residential and commerical usage and surface decor in the Art Nouveau (Jugendstil) style. The top of the building is adorned with a woman’s head with flowing blonde hair. This is “Hygiea” (or Hygeia), the ancient Greek goddess of clean living and preventative health, and daughter to the god of medicine, Asklepios. Given her disposition to good “hygiene”, Hygiea is also the patron for apothecaries (pharmacists). The cultural monuments are also part of the 2002 UNESCO World Heritage Site listing for the surrounding Upper Middle Rhine Valley.

Listing of memorials in Koblenz: Denkmalverzeichnis Kreisfreie Stadt Koblenz (PDF, in German)

Koblenz Touristik and Romantic Germany for their advice and support. Koblenz is one of the cities in the Historic Highlights of Germany. I made the photo above on 26 November 2015 with the Canon EOS6D, 24-105 zoom, and the settings: 1/400-sec, f/10, ISO1000, and 60mm focal length. This post appears on Fotoeins Fotopress at fotoeins.com as http://wp.me/p1BIdT-7Tm.