seeterrassen restaurant at the hohenfelden reservoir lake - a GDR building from 1971.
for most of my vacances i decide to spend my time with my parents, either they visit me or i visit them, which is what i did in early may. my dad had to actually work during the time i was there, but i spent some time with my mom and we made a little trip to hohenfelden and its reservoir lake. we initially just wanted to have a nice long walk around the lake, but then ended up visiting the outdoor museum in the village of hohenfelden! it's a museum that showcases medieval & historic houses and it has various exhibitions about topics such as historic school systems, sheep shearing or blacksmithing. it was really a lot you could see & discover and as a lover of medieval houses i was basically in visual heaven.
hohenfelden is not very far away from thuringia's capital erfurt, a stone's throw away to be exact. it's a rather small village, with only a few hundred inhabitants, and its nestled inbetween soft hills and canola fields. it was lovely spending this time together with my mom, and we were quite a bit smashed when we finally returned home. instead of walking the planned 5 to 8 kms that day, we almost did 15! this happens a lot with us, we just can't stop ourselves sometimes, haha.
anyway, this will be a kinda lengthy post with almost 100 images, so i won't waste any more words than i need to... as usual i will probably explain more as you read on.
the reservoir lake of hohenfelden was built from 1966 to 1975 for local recreation purposes only, it has several campsites, a few beaches for swimming guests and offers lots of activities for anybody trying to get away from everyday or city life. this little hut was a former fisher hut ( and actually still is - you can still go fishing in the lake ).
i love me a good thatched roof - it reminds me so much of the traditional architecture in northern germany.
you can also rent a boat and do a tour around the lake. i'd really like to do that someday.
the seeterrassen restaurant, very iconic building. i don't have the fondest memories of that building, though, the service inside the restaurant was never quite satisfying the few times we visited. i don't know if it's better these days, but when i was a kid we once sat there half an hour before anyone served us and then waited for another hour for the food which never came and my dad was so pissed that he stood up and left the restaurant without a word ( and we followed, lol ). on a different occassion we had ordered something and received it, but without silverware to eat with and again, my dad, being someone who is rarely agitated, went to the serving counter and asked in a very upset tone whether he should eat with his bare hands. and the servers were also super pissed with each other and duked out fights... but that all was about 20 years or so ago, so of course this doesn't mean that's still the case, lol.
i still really like the building though, even though it's a hassle to take photos of... the light wasn't very ideal on that day, too bright and too harsh ( that's why the first photo of this post is covered in sunflares and whatnot, haha )
the reservoir lake looking quite idyllic.
peng!
this little hut was probably some kind of kiosk back in its heydays.
there's something so good about dead trees being devoured by water. dead trees in general are such nice objects, right?
we hiked a bit through the nearby woods until we arrived in the village of hohenfelden. the actual village is also part of the outdoor museum, presenting even more historic houses, like the vicarage, old school or the local church. we actually purchased our tickets here, but you can also do that in the main museum, which is a 2 km hike outside of the village, situated on a hill overlooking the ilm valley.
one of the first remarkable buildings you will encounter in hohenfelden is this former barn now turned cafe. they restored it so beautifully! it wasn't open when we visited, as it was a weekday, but they open up business at the weekends from april to october.
this was shot inside an old brewery building.
entering the grounds of church st. burkhard - dating back to 1439 only the romanesque bell tower is still indicating its age. the rest of the church is carried out in baroque style.
an old gravestone inside the churchyard.
i truly loved this part of the churchyard with the lilac bush and the old walls in the back. i'm a little unhappy with how i captured the gravestone, though, it kind of hides too much in the shadows. it was such a beautiful gravestone!
a better look at the aforementioned gravestone.
inside st. burkhard. i love how the baroque elements aren't too overwhelming ( like baroque churches often are decked out in excessive decor ). it's rather minimal, but i feel that the minimalism is actually bringing out the beautiful interiors more.
better look at the pulpit altar. do damn beautiful. would you also please have a look at the lovely baptistery? 😍
the back of the church with the organ up on the gallery.
these two madonnas were gracing the church walls as well, and where a nice little touch to the otherwise undecorated walls.
inside the vicarage! such a beautiful sight it was! the little tower in the back is actually a pigeonry.
this little sheep family was part of the sheep farm exhibition and stood right in front of the old sheep farm.
pigeonry and parsonage ( from 1806 ). here you can purchase your tickets for the the whole museum.
we went to take a closer look at the sheep farming exhibition. pictured here is an old trailer. these were often standing near the meadows where the sheep would graze. notice the little stovepipe! probably could be quite cozy in there, albeit very narrow.
a weaving loom.
and an accompanying basket of nice thick sheep wool, and some more things necessary for weaving & spinning.
a look outside the upper floor granted you this beautiful view of a kitchen garden.
i think this is a little kitchen for producing sheep cheese and milk.
shepherds had a lot of time on their hands while watching their herds of sheep and one of their pastimes was creating beautiful things out of wood, carving all kinds of pretty patterns for picture frames or tiny treasure boxes. these were so lovely!
a shepherd and his sheepdog. loved this little setup, also with the big sheep herd photograph as an additional decorational element.
this little building is meant for beekeeping purposes only.
these are the entrance doors to the beehives that hide behind. i loved all those different structures!
this is a drying kiln were they used to dry fruit!
really nice detail: carvings in plaster. simple, but still decorative.
the gable of the drying kiln house.
and the bee house again, in all its glory. definitely fell in love with this construction.
there's also an old general store inside one of the barns. i work in retail and even though it's not actually my dream job i still love to look at the relicts of historic stores of yore. i couldn't imagine myself selling stuff without an electric check-out, though, simply because my calculation skills are the worst. thank goodness i don't have to deal with that in my everyday life, i only give out food to people and they pay at the check-out later on. good for people who were awful in maths, lol. but still bad for people who actually dislike humans in general ( also me :D ) ANYWAY.
i wouldn't mind working in such a charming environment, though ( with a little bit of daylight, still ). it had the perfect size even!
old cash and some lovely vintage displays.
a look into the back of the store.
again, the plaster carvings caught my eye!
maggi soup bags, double caramel malt beer, chinese tin boxes, villosa hustellinchen cough drops and a dr. oetker display.
i really like the old scale & the bonbonnieres!
various vintage coffee tin boxes. the designs of these are so good. sometimes i wish things would still look so great today.
another view of that cute pigeonry and the sheep barn.
then we entered the former school building. there was one classroom for 4 classes. and all the kids ranging from 6 to 10 would participate in the same lessons, regardless of whether they were intented for the older or the younger kids. you had to go through it all!
i rrrrreeeeallly loved the 50ies curtains! and the general 50ies look of the classroom.
also, this muscle man! i wish i had a poster like this *_* love anatomy related things!
and the view towards the front.
also, could i please have plant posters as well? these showcase the goat willow ( on the left ) and the primrose ( on the right ).
above the classroom was the teacher's appartment, all decked out in GDR 50ies glory as well. the wallpaper! the cute stove! the kitchen cupboard!
i still remember having a friend when i was little whose grandma basically lived in a duplication of this appartment. and i also remember certain elements in my parent's home from back in the 90ies that were still super inspired by those olde times! like... GDR design only sloooooowly developed over the decades and you could still find stuff from the70ies and 80ies that looked like they were from the 50ies.
i think lamps like these are still modern today! i'm pretty sure i've seen something equal at ikea once.
the bedroom. with an old-fashioned bed, that you could separate if you wanted to.
the living room. oh, that radio/television combination! i would definitely love something equal in my appartment! sometimes i'm quite sad that those old tech-wares don't grace our living rooms anymore.
in the hallway this piece de resistance stole my heart immediately and i'm searching for something like this for my plants since! i remember my parents having one of these, but... it's forever GONE! these plant shelves are so iconic, they initially just were coffee tables called kidney table ( because of the shape ) and date back to the 1950ies. over the years they developed more models, like this plant shelf. i feel like my plants would look really cute on it! i found some on the interwebs, but they are expensive, y'all. apparently they're really coveted these days. i'm seriously debating with myself on spending like 150 euro on one, because... it'd be a good investment i guess, haha. nah, of course, because i truly love the design!
i also was really smitten with this wardrobe! it had everything! an umbrella stand, a full body mirror, a shoe & hat rack, hooks of course and rubber bands to lock something behind it! i admit, the colour could be cooler, like it would look fantastic in black & white, but who are you even kidding, i'd jump at this thing immediately if it was presented to me! i've found a few similar wardrobes online, but without a full length mirror and while they are quite cute, it's not the exact same thing! and again, super expensive. oh, why do they like mid-century design so much these days?
my mom and i left the school and proceeded to walk the short distance ( remember, 2 km? 'short' indeed ) to the actual museum. on our way there, we met these cuties:
duck fledglings! they weren't so tiny anymore, but they still had some of the floof going on. and their tiny fledgling voices were still those of very wee ones!
we finally reached the museum grounds and immediately delved into exploring all the historic buildings. all of them originally came from various places in thuringia, all over the state. they either were in danger of getting torn down because they weren't up to today's standards or they simply were so valuable because they've been around for centuries and are extraordinary exemplars of architectural history.
this is a farmyard from 1771 - the eichelborner hof. what strikes you most are the turquoise window frames! the little tower thing in the yard on the left is... another pigeonry!
this post mill called salzmann's mill is the oldest mill in thuringia, originally built in 1729. it provided its services for 223 years until they had to close it down in 1952, because of weather and age-related issues. people didn't want to tear the mill down and be lost to time, so they decided to rescue it and rebuild it on the plot of the museum in hohenfelden.
the subbase. the so-called 'house tree' - a thick post in the middle of the mill - is basically mounting the body of the mill and through that it could be turned towards where the wind was blowing ( with the help of a leverage ).
in the back you can see another historic building - a block barn.
on the inside you can marvel at the huge cog wheel.
there was also a tiny separated room inside the mill that housed a bed. this door led to the little chamber ( i unfortunately didn't capture a very good picture, so no visuals for that room, sorry! ) behind the door you can see the house tree - the post i was talking about earlier, which is connected to the cog wheel and therefore can turn around its axis. apparently it is one of the biggest house trees in thuringia!
the next house was this cutie from 1685. it's an umgebindehaus ( or upper lusatian house ) - special because it combines logs, timber-framing & stone building methods in one.
the windows of the house were made out of crown glass - which i personally like a lot, because it gives off such a cozy feeling.
another gem inside the house was this utterly gorgeous furnace/kiln with cup tiles and heated alcoves and big integrated kegs. i could vividly imagine myself sitting on the bench surrounding it in winter, reading or writing or listening to the fire crackle. yeah, i'm a romantic at heart, i guess.
next house was a smithy's home and workplace. it was built in 1850. shame on me again for sorta forgetting to take a better picture of the house up front. it was actually really pretty with a wrought-iron gate surrounding a little front garden.
a little corner somewhere on the property of the smithy.
inside the building. the workspace was integrated into the ground floor of it, and right next to it was the most important room of the house, the living room! you could also climb up some stairs and get to the second floor with several tiny bedrooms. it was really fascinating to me that the work space was incorporated into the whole home. i really wonder what the quality of life was with such a hot and dirty place right next to the living areas.
the living room with a door to the kitchen on the right.
the kitchen.
one of the bedrooms on the second floor.
and another one!
i really loved this corner of the smithy workspace, the charred walls and the machinery.
the light created a very magical moment for this corner of the workspace.
another house we entered was the utzberger hof from 1683, one of the last byre-dwellings of thuringia. ( and can you guess, i forgot again to take a picture of the home, lol ). there wasn't that much to see here, the whole house was in a very decrepit state. i still loved it for that fact alone.
some window sill details.
there's an adjacent barn which showcases the workspace, products and appliances of several woodwork-related professions. the wheelwright's room.
saws upon saws.
wood turner's workspace.
this cellar was part of another neat house:
the güglebener hof. it's from 1604 and was a very representative building back in those days! the timber-framing is very rich in decorative elements. it showed that the owner of the house was quite wealthy.
ah, timber-frames - how i love thee!
we returned back to the first house i introduced you to: the eichelborner hof with its wonderful turquoise details. another remarkable thing about that house was the access balcony.
incorporated into the home were stables for animals ( the two brown doors lead into them ).
inside the house the blue kitchen was the main eye candy.
especially that corner was so beautiful to me!
the living room.
on the access balcony looking into the yard.
you could even enter the attic, which could probably be a creepy place, but really wasn't.
one last picture of this beautiful building. we then said goodbye for good and made our way back to the car. suffice to say that we were for sure pretty tired after looking at so many things and reading up on history etc.
our path back lead us past wonderful yellow canola fields, which really calmed down our crammed brains, haha.
one thing is for sure, to visit the outdoor museum is one of the must-do things when you visit my homeland! i loved it so much that i will probably return again someday to see if anything changed or more houses were added! we also missed out checking up on a grange & a shoemaker's workshop, so they are up on the list for a revisit, as well, for sure!
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