visitation church in wiesbaden-kohlheck.
the church you see above is situated in the sub-district of kohlheck in wiesbaden-dotzheim, surrounded by post-war residential blocks at the foot of the taunus mountains. the visitation church was erected in 1966 by johannes lackel, a berlin architect, in the style of brutalism. its distinct form is colloquially called 'cue of god' or 'launch pad of the souls' ( which i find super amusing and kind of neat, because a space religion is so much cooler than a conservative and reactionary superstitious power construct ). well, the church often proves that it can be experimental, despite its beliefs, especially so with its representative buildings! in germany you can find many church buildings that stretch the idea of what you would call a quintessential place of worship. to be honest, despite loving the old churches of this world and their dark, dingy, majestic layouts, i do have a pendant for the modern ones, because i feel more welcome here. they feel a lot more open-minded and not stuck in rituals and dusty belief systems.
i didn't enter the church because it was closed but i will try to look out for possible entering dates ( there's a night of open churches in september, and sometimes they open up churches for heritage day, too, so i will definitely keep my eyes peeled on that ). the building is pretty spectacular in my opinion, hovering over the city and visible even from the other side of the rhein river in mainz.
the exposed concrete is quite a nice background for trees and plants. it was a very dry summer day, though, so nothing looked very lush and fresh. ( also, please excuse the smudgy spot on the picture, the lens of my camera was quite dirty that day and i only saw it when i returned home, lol )
the back of the church. the layout of the church is shaped after the david star, because mary was initially jewish. and the outlines of the building resemble an M, for mother mary's name.
i didn't linger that much longer and decided to flee from the sun and the heat into the nearby woods.
nice-coloured leaves of the smoke bush.
before entering the woods i discovered this abandoned home. unfortunately it was surrounded by inhabited homes, so exploring was ill-advised. abandoned places do draw me in magically, i feel there's always the huge possibility to find some really neat things inside, a scenery frozen in time.
my walk through the kohlheck woods was really quiet and the light was wonderful! sometimes a soft breeze moved through the trees and created delightful shadowplay.
the woods nearby the kohlheck settlement are close to a valley called weilburger tal, and it was the perfect place to be on this hot summer day. walking through the high forest is especially pleasant when the high temperatures inside the city are almost unbearable.
every now and then you can find a resting place where you can enjoy the sounds of the woods, and let the calm soothe you. i say 'the calm', because that is what the woods, any kind of woods, feel to me. it's like a special space, a haven of tranquility, a calm.
where you can stumble upon boy scout remnants and imagine that a wood creature actually built these for ritualistic purposes.
tiny pathways leading away from the main tracks lure you into a land of even greater repose.
the tiny dirt track lead you through a pretty clearing, where i stopped and shot some bad self portrait pictures, one of which i don't want to withhold from you ;P
first off: #fromwhereistand .
enter something stupid here.
while shooting those pictures i discovered this alien-looking plant. it's enchanter's night-shade. it is said that they were plants of witches, luring you into the shadow parts of the woods and getting you to end up lost. it is more probable that they were called circaea lutetiana ( after the enchantress circe from the greek myths and the 'witch city' of paris ) because they are supposed to have healing properties.
i liked that clearing a lot as it highlighted some wonderful growth and plants.
like these nice heather bushes. did you know that heather is the flower of 2019? now you know.
every now and then you find remnants of lumber activities. this spot was all dried up and looked chaotic.
but the tree that they fell - a pine - was still beautiful to look at, even in death with its flakey bark.
she had a looooot of annual rings. my guess would be like 100, but it's probably less. and since the texture was already withered it made it really difficult to count the rings.
on a different patch of wooden floor i found some dried up pink leaves! a sycamore maple dropped these way too early, i suspect it was because of the dryness we had in august last year.
the soft rose of the leaves were quite dreamy.
i left the woods to explore some more of the kohlheck surroundings and shot a glance at the new construction of the horst-schmidt-klinik ( a hospital ).
and passed by some post-modern residentials...
...to end up very close at my starting point again, near the church, where a school building is situated - the kohlheckschule. there wasn't much else to find than residentials areas, which always makes me uncomfortable to shoot in, because the people who tend to live in those very calm areas might end up catching me and demanding answers of me to their questions as to why i am taking photos of their properties 😅 so i mostly end up walking in those places and just taking it in with just my eyes...
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