crossing bridge in sömmerda.
sömmerda is the little city i was born in ( but not raised ), and while today i actually quite like this place, it wasn't always so. sömmerda for me was always booooooring af, there never was a lot going on there, it felt provincial & small-minded and kind of dated. growing up as a teenager in a region that's very reclusive and smalltown-y, with rarely some like-minded people around, sömmerda didn't provide any connections to me. i didn't go to high school there, i rarely attended any social gatherings - it was more like a city i had to go to because of obligatory things like doctor's appointments or learning how to drive, not a place i could get more creative & connect with people.
today i look different upon this city, because it isn't as dire & stale as i always made it out to be. while not super cosmopolitan, it offers a few cultural happenings throughout the year, has various educational & creative hubs and the fact that it's situated by the river unstrut means it also provides super nice natural surroundings. these days i look at this town with softened eyes, because it's a beautiful place and i really love to visit whenever i am in thuringia - reconnecting with my provincial roots.
the view out on the river from the bridge. the day felt very spring-like and i loved it.
passing by some old concrete dwellings with faces and cracks in their walls.
it didn't take long for me to discover the first snowdrops.
the mühlgraben ( mill stream ), a crosscut of the unstrut river, flows through some parts of sömmerda and helps immensely with making the city more beautiful!
it feels a little like walking through a thuringian equivalent to venice, only luckily not as crowded 🖤
hello, curious kitten! she was a bit shy and ran away soon after i took the photo.
the stream was called after several mills situated on its shores: one of them being the dreyse-mühle. the dreyse mill was erected in 1841, inspired by american industrial mills & gun factories. speaking of gun factories, the mill was used as one by the german firearms inventor johann dreyse. its brickstone studwork facade reminds me of the steampunk era, only that it took place in the middle of nowhere in thuringia. it's a super cool building that i wish they would use as a creative space, but as of now it's used by a metal construction company.
ducks & geese were happily swimming in the sunny waves of the stream.
what a beauty this duck was! such softspoken eyes.
one of the two church portals of st. bonifatius. this church goes way back to the mid-1400s, but most of it was built from 1525 to 1562 - which makes it a late-gothic building with renaissance elements. i love the stone reliefs & gravestones attached to the church facade.
directly on the other side of the church is this remarkable building, a modern GDR construction that i grew to like a huuuuge lot. it's the colourful facade art that makes it so exceptional to me. the appartment building was created in the mid-70ies and showcases various sceneries that are important to the history of sömmerda. the creators of the images are werner wagner & herbert reiher ( about which i can't find more information - which is a frustrating thing when it comes to GDR artists ).
i really have a thing for stylized modern art. so, so, so freaking good.
this is my favourite image, because it coalesces & converges so beautifully.
and the patterns on this part of the facade is so visually stimulating!
the market square on which you can see the GDR appartment building on the left, st. bonifatius in the background and the fortuna fountain in the front. remember the pomona sculpture i shot an image of in december? this is another sculpture by the same artist ( wolfgang dreysse ) from 2014 - depicting the industrial history of the city of sömmerda. the figure in the front is nicolaus dreyse - the dude who invented the needle-fired gun - he is in his burial gown, holding tiny figurines, miniature sculptures of a bigger memorial dedicated to him.
the accumulation of these figurines symbolizes the hard-working humans of the industrial revolution.
more buildings on the marktplatz: the renaissance city hall on the left ( 1529 - 1539 ), hotel zum schwan ( hotel swan ) in the middle.
tourist info in the middle & restaurant 'zum goldenen adler' ( golden eagle ) on the right. this square is a really nice place, so open & kind of freeing? and it gives way for taking real good pictures.
portal to the city hall cellar.
several coat of arms on the facade of the city hall.
this picture was shot into the direction of marktstraße.
another house i really, truly love is this one: the former deanery ( now vicarage ). i mean - just two words: timber frames? if timber frames were a person i would caress them very softly, haha. the deanery was originally built in 1602.
oh, yes, such a visual delight 😍
it's just a dreamboat of a house, right?
what do you think, does sömmerda look boring af or would it be worth it enough to pay it a visit?
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