renovated former match producing factory buildings in mainz-kostheim. they now seem to house loft appartments.
i probably wrote about it before ( i'm pretty sure i did ), but wiesbaden has three districts that once belonged to mainz in historic times, but after world war 2 the administrative rights were given to wiesbaden by the american allies and stayed with wiesbaden since then. that's something that's still controversial today, as the inhabitants of the AKK-districts ( for Amöneburg, Kastel, Kostheim ) still sort of feel attached to mainz and as mainz citizens. those three districts have a very distinct atmosphere to them, mainly a very industrial and working class one, which is what makes them most special. there's lots of factory buildings everywhere, from new to old to ruinous and the overall cityscape is showing signs of working class residential areas. since i got quite enamoured with industrial spaces in the past few years i'm slowly discovering these districts as well, which never quite crossed my mind before that moment. and boy, have i discovered some lovely little areas and buildings in mainz-kostheim. let's go on a little stroll!
st. michael's - inaugurated in 1906. it's a church with protestant denomination. it was erected according to plans of carl brunner who was mainly active in mainz.
the doors were the most impressive details for me, as they were so playfully decorated with intricate ironwork. and the soft blue paint was also a lovely contrast to the roughly milled stone facade.
above the main entry is a writing that says: come in, everything is prepared. i didn't try to enter this church ( mainly because some churches are so small that they don't open on every day of the week and i simply assumed that it was the case with this church - without actually looking it up ).
there was a really cute little public bookcase in front of the church ( and i think i took a few books with me, haaaaaa ).
closed up.
this former funeral parlor near the old cemetery of kostheim is now home to a kid's club.
not to be missed on buildings like a funeral parlour: the cross.
this abstract building is home to the gymnastics club of kostheim and was built in 2015 by the architect michael eckert of EckertHarms architects. the prominent facade is made out of metal.
i really like the abstracted form of a jumping figure!
this construction is a train tracks crossing for pedestrians. it's called 'schneckenbrücke' ( snail bridge ) because the rise winds up in a spiral, like the shell of a snail. it was built in 2002 by the architects of plan b.
it's quite a striking structure, isn't it? i decided to pass over it and take a look at the residential area on the other side.
green bushes and trees already take over the metal framework and will eventually transform it into a little overgrown jungle.
at the top.
a view over the train tracks.
as you can see, i probably made way too many pictures of the snail bridge 😁 i just really liked it!
going down again.
i discovered some cool details at various apartment houses in the residential area i mentioned earlier. like this cool gate!
and a house from the 70ies or 80ies right next to the gate, with a distinctive oriel as a centerpiece.
more details on the oriel. those swirls look like entwining flowers, or vines with grapes on it. would make sense, because mainz-kostheim is also surrounded by vineyards.
speaking of entwining plants, somehow i caught sight of these cuties. i haven't found any info on what these are, though.
i made my way back to the riverside of mainz-kostheim and passed by the gym of the gymnastics club again.
and then ended up in the harbour of the village. you can find old ruins that are still part of a producing paper manufacture ( essity ).
overgrown with ivy 😍. put me in front of overgrown buildings and you can be sure that my brain goes pop.
creeping in.
there were some thistles nearby that teemed with hoverflies and wasps.
i climbed up this lookout tower to get a little overview on the area.
you can watch the main river running down into the rhein river, the two big and important rivers meet here just around the corner.
you can also have a look at the paper factory. which looks really cool from above.
some clarification plants.
looking down on that overgrown building. look at how the ivy is devouring the lamp!
i can't tell you anything about the paper plant, but i know that i really liked the parts of it that were really decrepit :)
this is only a little part of the plant.
i love how there's many different architectural styles within the unit.
a little branch of the main river, which is basically an inlet for ships. not sure if it's still used as a harbour, though.
downward. love the patterns and structures.
a ship carrying some cargo up the stream. on the other side you can see a few buildings of ginsheim-gustavsburg, another small town in the vicinity of wiesbaden.
after i've seen enough of the beautiful main river surroundings i made my way back to the car. passed by st. kilian's and saw that people entered the church so i quickly slipped in as well. saint kilian's church was built in 1836 ( it is the 5th church on that position since its first mention in 880 ). what makes it kinda special to me is the choir, because it has a wonderful mural on its wall and a cool altar. the mural was made by alois plum, an artist from mainz, in 1984.
the altar space had a really good atmosphere, very warm and inviting.
the mural in full view. and look at the massive concrete altar! i liked its clumsiness.
glass windows always have this weird attraction on me.
st. kilian's bell tower. i moved on and decided to take a look at a structure that i've visited before:
not much is standing anymore at the linde refrigeration engineering plant i posted about in this blog entry. i don't even know, as of this date, if they have torn it down completely and already begun their residential settlement work. should probably make a return to mainz-kostheim this year and check it all out.
so basically everything that still existed at that moment in time was only the skeleton of the former building.
rubble & rubbish.
a few colourful tidbits could be found here and there, such as tags and mysterios birds.
it seems like it was quite the playground for graffiti sprayers.
and in places that were even quite high up!
see-through. on the other side a secondary channel of the river rhine is situated, if you can remember my january '18 blog post about the last time i visited you probably still have in mind that i've seen the plant from the river side. this time i made sure to check out the street side as well, and the sheer immensity of the whole plot was kind of mindblowing.
graffiti and jungle. i found this after i left the plant behind, walking back to the maaraue peninsula.
i crossed over a bridge and then found myself back at the river's side...
... from which i've took a last picture of the plant and it's distinctive tower. i secretly said goodbye, because by then i knew that it wasn't long until it would cease to exist.
and just like that, our little exploration of mainz-kostheim is over. i hope it gave a little bit of insight into the characteristics of this little wiesbaden district, a district that's mainly industrial, but also offers great natural escapes.
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