september '17: the dead & the living.

mortuary of sonnenberg cemetery framed by perfect red trees.

it's strange, but as soon as autumn hits us there's that invisible pull that makes me want to visit cemeteries. i guess it's the correlation of a moribund nature & a place of the deceased, which in my head goes hand in hand very well. there's an aura to cemeteries around this time of the year that is hard to ignore, haunting, bewitching, phantasmal. for me, cemeteries were never places of sadness & despair, but fascinating & daunting, exciting even. there is a calmness to them that i always think of as soothing & regenerative. even as a kid i begged my parents to come along for visits to my grandparent's grave. it was always so interesting for me to walk next to the graves and read when someone was born and then died, to calculate how old they were or to read the memorials. i loved looking at the decors on some caves, fresh flowers, wilted ones, neatly tended or long forgotten. all those things i still like to look at. i like the patina on decades-old graves, artful mausoleums, historic treasures from long ago, and all embedded in a park-like structure, perfect for taking an afternoon stroll. birds are singing their songs, squirrels searching for their winter stocks, nearly no human being around. people might say that as soon as you had to attend a funeral such feelings will fade away quickly, but i still feel the same warm connection after going through such an experience a few times already. even looking back to those sad occassions conjures up melancholic pictures, like the sunlight that shone through the trees on a friend's burial and so many sympathies expressed to the parents. or the song that was played on my cousin's funeral, and how i walked towards his casket & the memento image, bowing down in respect for his persistance against the cancer he was fighting for years. i cried and cried, but in retrospect i look back at those sceneries more fondly than with fear & agony. and it didn't hold me back to pay graveyards yearly visits.

the cemetery in the sonnenberg district is a small, but old one ( it exists since 1553 ) and hides a little nugget within its walls: the ruin of an old chapel. there were some nice graves there as well, but somehow on that day a lot of people seemed to have decided to make their graveyard visits and it was rather packed. it definitely detained me from taking more photos and i soon left and made a little walk around the neighborhood. the area surrounding the cemetery is really interesting, it's inhabited by people who absolutely can not be called poor. all kinds of villas & mansions can be found around there, some pretty eccentric, others very minimalistic. my little invisible head antennae were wildly spinning around for all the eyecandy. it's a little embarassing sometimes to have such an obsession for architecture. especially when you run around in remote residential areas with a camera in hand. i always hope that no one will ask me what i'm doing or feels affected by my coveting eyes. but then again, aren't some buildings intentionally designed for gawking passers-by? why would they build an expensive outrageous house if they didn't want to show it off somehow?

anyways, starting with the graveyard.

loved this beautiful head. and the bible quote: why do you seek the living one among the dead?

can you spot the tiny snail hiding in jesus' golden locks?

a minimalistic grave. i'd probably opt for such a style if i decided for a classic grave. right now i'd rather like to be entombed in the woods, though, in a natural burial, preferably in cremated form.

there's a special kind of intimacy to this grave that i was really smitten with.

i soon approached the ruins of the former chapel. red wine leaves were graceing one of the arches - a rather romantic place, don't you think?

i really was in love with the overgrown arch 😍

and especially the bright red leaves!

old graves from the 1800s were surrounding the chapel.

the graveyard keeper's house. i met a cat here, but i was too slow taking a photo of it. i love graveyard kittens ❤

contemporary fortress.

a lot of the buildings were pretty new. even though i like a more natural cultivation more than a overly designed one, i kind of liked the plant work of this house.

this house was quite fascinating with its sculptural roof & the diverse tree forms.

i'd book that house under 'rather eccentric & woowoo'.

not quite sure if this structure was an actual house or a garage. a google search with a view from up above left me even more puzzled. is it an underground thing? is it a pond? is one of the houses nearby the actual house? question after question.

yellow/green splendor. while cigar trees aren't actually common in germany, every so often you can still find them. my parents have one of them in front of their house as well!

after walking a corner i spied something which gave me immense alert feelings! do i see a mid-century home? yes, i absolutely see a mid-century home!

unfortunately i couldn't find any information about it. loved the mosaic details of the entry wall and the chimney.

also the gateway had a very nice mosaic-like quality as well. damn, i really wish i could've had access to this house to take better pictures of it. it was so mysterious!