Darmstadt is one of my favourite German towns and translates rather inappropriately as "bowel town"! I had been there 10 years or so ago and fell totally in love with the architecture. On Sunday, Sue was working on her university assignment and so I decided to go on an adventure on my own and revisit Darmstadt. I took two trains and a bus to get there. I could have taken Sue's car but I'm not confident to drive a right hand drive vehicle on the right hand side of the road. The first of my favourite buildings is the Hochzeitsturm (wedding tower). It's also known as the Fünf Finger Turm (five fingered tower) and is just so fascinating to look at. Just down a few steps, you meet the Russian Chapel, which was built by a grandfather of Peter Ustinov between 1897 and 1899. The golden spires make for a breathtaking sight.
There are lots of examples of Jugenstil (Art Nouveau) and some of them are reminiscent of my favourite Glaswegian archictect, Charles Rennie Mackintosh. I love the round front door to this building.
Then there is the Ernst-Ludwig-Haus, flanked by Ludwig Habich's sculptures of Adam and Eve.
And finally the Peter Behrens Haus, into which I could quite happily move. Darmstadt was well worth the long journey and defintely somewhere I have to take my family to see.
No comments:
Post a Comment