Welterbestaetten in Deutschland | Fotoeins Fotografie

Fotoeins Friday: Jasmund National Park, 🇩🇪 UNESCO WHS

In their day, medieval architects were inspired by what they saw in the beech forests where trees seemed to reach endlessly into the sky, creating “hallowed halls” in the hinterlands. The massive vertical spaces are to cathedrals what those trees are to the forested lands. The primeval beech forests like those found in Jasmund National Park on the island of Rügen in northeast Germany are inscribed as a UNESCO World Nature Heritage site across 18 European nations since 2007.

I made the image above on 3 Jun 2024 with a Fujifilm X70 fixed-lens prime and the following settings: 1/125-sec, f/4, ISO2000, and 18.5mm focal length (28mm full-frame equivalent). This post appears on Fotoeins Fotografie at fotoeins DOT com as https://wp.me/p1BIdT-wIN.

Fotoeins Friday: Bayreuth Opera House, 🇩🇪 UNESCO WHS

Bayreuth, Germany: inside the main hall of the Margravial Opera House (Markgräfliches Opernhaus) during guided tour. The building was inscribed as UNESCO World Heritage Site in 2012.

I made the image above on 9 Jun 2024 with a Fujifilm X70 fixed-lens prime and the following settings: 1/30-sec, f/2.8, ISO6400, and 18.5mm focal length (28mm full-frame equivalent). This post appears on Fotoeins Fotografie at fotoeins DOT com as https://wp.me/p1BIdT-wBK.

Fotoeins Friday: Stralsund, 🇩🇪 UNESCO WHS

The Alter Markt square in Stralsund is brilliantly illuminated in late-day sun with St. Nikolaikirche (St. Nicholas Church) and the Rathaus (City Hall) framing the scene at right. The greenish building at centre-left is the heritage-protected mid-18th century building Commandantenhus. Stralsund’s Old Town has been inscribed as UNESCO World Heritage Site since 2002.

I made the image above on 31 May 2024 with an iPhone15; the image is corrected for geometric distortion. This post appears on Fotoeins Fotografie at fotoeins DOT com as https://wp.me/p1BIdT-wIH.

Fotoeins Friday: Haithabu-Hedeby, 🇩🇪 UNESCO WHS

Just outside the city of Schleswig, Germany is the site of a former Viking settlement near the western end of the inlet Schlei. The sheltered harbour and a relatively short overland (portage) distance between the North and Baltic Seas made this an ideal location for settlement. The Viking sites Haithabu and Danevirke nearby have been inscribed as UNESCO World Heritage Site since 2018.

I made the image above on 30 May 2024 with a Fujifilm X70 fixed-lens prime and the following settings: , and 18.5mm focal length (28mm full-frame equivalent). This post appears on Fotoeins Fotografie at fotoeins DOT com as https://wp.me/p1BIdT-wI3.

Worms: Holy Sand, Europe’s oldest surviving Jewish cemetery

I’m looking for a “thousand-year history” in the city of Worms located in southwest Germany. This has nothing to do helminthology or nematology, as the town’s name is derived from “Warmaisa”, the former Jewish name of the city. This is about an important part of Jewish-German history and peaceful coexistence of the Judeo-Christian communities within Europe. The town’s fame and reputation is also partly derived from Martin Luther; I’ve already visited the site where Luther was on trial to answer charges of heresy, as well as the world’s largest Reformation monument.

This part of the Rhein river area is considered the “cradle of European Jewry”, known also as “little Jerusalem on the Rhine.” In medieval times, flourishing Jewish communities in the cathedral cities of Speyer, Worms, and Mainz facilitated the creation of a common Jewish league with the name ShUM (SchUM), spelled out by the first letters of the Hebrew names for the three cities. As emphasis on the influence of Jewish heritage in Europe and the ongoing process of preservation and education, the Holy Sand cemetery is one of four constituents in the newly inscribed UNESCO World Heritage Site (2021).

On a breezy late-autumn afternoon, light fades quick, casting solemn shadows on this ground. In the town’s old Jewish cemetery, I’m the only person present, and I’ve placed a small stone on top of a number of gravestones. I’m surrounded by apparitions over an millennium’s age and by the remaining physical traces in various shapes, stones, and size.

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