rock structures.
it's been quite a while since i last made a post on wiesbaden ( february! ), so it's time again to dive into the fabric of the city i am living in! over the course of time ( about 10 years now ) it feels like i have sufficiently explored it enough, sometimes even feeling a little bored by the prospect of just going out on a walk in the various neighborhoods. so it always surprises me, upon revisiting places, that i have not seen it all yet, and even if i did, with every change of the seasons the perspectives can also change places that you have been to hundreds of times already! and every time, really, every time, i get to uncover little secret, formerly unseen details, suddenly discover a street that i haven't walked yet, or make out a scenery that absolutely speaks to my heart! buildings formerly uninteresting to me start to develop a charm that is irresistible, and structures and colours appear in a new way in the context of a different season. cities have so many facettes, from centuries of history to contemporary developments, and even though you might feel bored at times, and like you have seen it all, this fact, that they are comprised of so many styles and the zeitgeists of various epochs, it happens to be exactly what will help you out of a possible rut when it comes to your city. sometimes you just need to push yourself out there and explore again to refind your admiration for a place. wiesbaden is one of the really beautiful places, so beautiful even that many visitors i had, told me that it almost seems luxurious and unreal. sometimes i forget about that part. sometimes i really only see ugliness everywhere underneath the splendid facades and the luscious exquisite layout of the city. but other times... i realize that it is indeed a city worth living in, a dreamy vision and i am here in reality. and the appreciation will rise up again and make me feel glad to be able to live here.
these porous stone structures can be found at some walls surrounding the rhein-main-congress-center, which is right around the corner of where i live. i have passed by these walls often, but never noticed their beauty up close.
nature creates the best patterns! the rock used for many walls and the facade of the congress center is called travertine, a creamy, sometimes sand-coloured fibrous limestone. they can form stalagtites and stalagmites, which is due to the white parts you see in this close-up - they are calcium carbonates that help create these kind of formations.
the front of the congress center with the water game. this constructional detail is one of my favourites, because it creates wonderful mirror shots of the building!
on the other side of the congress center the museum wiesbaden is situated, and its colonnades are very pretty!
various rocks surround the museum and emphasize the natural scientific section of the museum.
close-up! love this crystalline-looking rock! unfortunately could not find any detail information about these, though i think there were some badges attached to them.
the patterns on this rock reminded me of the turkey tail mushroom!
the facade of the north wing. the museum was built between 1913 and 1917 by theodor fischer. it has art nouveau elements but mostly was built in a historicized way to resemble classic architecture. additionally i think that you can also see a modern twist as well, some of the decorational embellishments seemed to have been made out of concrete - a nod to current developments back in the day, where it got more and more standard to built with concrete.
gorgeous figurine gracing the facade, standing on a fish and holding what looks like an open cornucopia? i don't know, guys, i know way too little about mythological symbols.
a strange symbol - a triskelion that was obviously inspired by ancient greek depictions of the symbol, which has winged feet and often a gorgoneion in the midst of it.
another sculpture, this time standing on a dragon with a fire in her hand ( that looks like icecream 😂 ). surely, all of the symbols and figures on this facade are probably related to greek mythology, that's my guess at least. just a wild guess, considering that the museum was designed in such a classic way ;) who they are supposed to depict, though, i really don't know!
behind the museum is a small square with a fountain. it always seems to be rather forgotten and neglected, though it's really quiet and nice there! the big modern building in the back belongs to the worker's compensation board for textile, energy, electrical engineering & media production ( short: BG ETEM ). architecturally i would pinpoint this building into the 1980ies or 1990ies, but i am not sure and i could not find any info on it. it's definitely quite a contrast to the classical museum!
no water was splashing inside the fountain. i wonder if that was a constant situation. should probably check out one day in summer maybe!
an annex of the BG ETEM building. i loved the contrast of all the autumnal colours against the blackness of the facades!
i walked for a while until i reached a mid-century administrative building very close to the kurhaus. the aareal bank was built between 1953 and 1955 by wilhelm wichtendahl ( and later expanded by alexander von branca ) and has always peaked my interest because of the elegant entrance building with the eagle relief and some mosaics that can be found on the breasts of the big windows ( i haven't made a good photo of these, though ). it's a very elegant building and definitely representative of the function of being a bank institute.
a random reflection i liked inside the windows of the bank.
a glimpse of the mosaics. they are made or marble!
the 'frontyard' of the bank is quite a nice place to stay in, there are some seating opportunities and trees are canopying the square on sunny days.
entering the kurpark. i love this park in autumn, when the trees shed their leaves and it creates a romantic atmosphere next to the kurhaus and the concert shell.
a bench situation.
the kurhaus again, parkside view. the front is more impressive for most tourists, but i always loved this side more. there's just really a spa feeling to it, instead of the bragging and boastful atmosphere of the front. the pond with the water fountain has been part of the park since 1855.
walking through the park brought my attention towards the leaf colourings of the local trees. larch needles are super enticing in their autumn dress!
i have never found out what kind of plants these are, but their colouration is simply gorgeous!
through the park runs the rambach creek, one of many small rivers that run through the urban space of wiesbaden. this little river is a ripsnorter, though, because when heavy rains are falling for a longer amount of time or a lot of snow melts in the mountains and feeds the river bed with thaw water it can lead to deluges that even strike the downtown area heavily! i remember one year ( it was 2014 ) where the underground car park right next to the kurhaus was flooded so much that cars swam around in there! and the kurhaus and adjoining theater was flooded, too! here are some images of what the rambach river, which looks so innocent here, can do the a city when the conditions are right!
an old fence from the times when you had to pay admission fees to enter the kurpark! indeed, after there had been a gambling ban in 1872 the city didn't know how to adequately finance itself without the revenue of the gambling activities that had made it so rich before that, so they had to come up with different ways to collect money. one of these solutions ( amongst the visitor's taxes they also put up ) was surrounding the park with an iron gate and building two pay kiosks at each of the two entrances. today you don't have to pay anymore, but the gates still remain and one of the pay kiosks is also still existing.
in close vicinity to the kurpark you will finds lots of historicized villas, such as this one with the gorgeous iron gate. the villa from 1860 once belonged to prince nikolaus of nassau, he lived here together with his wife natalia pushkina, a daughter of alexander pushkin. very illustrious pair of inhabitants, indeed!
iron gate details. this gate was actually installed in the 1920ies!
laced with heeeeaaaaps of fallen leaves!!! how wonderful a leaf battle would be inside this garden, don't you think? i imagine the kids of the noble couple gallivanting around in this garden in autumn, screaming and laughing and frolicking around. isn't that kind of a nice vision?
not too far away from the stately villa, a bit further up a road called richard-wagner-straße, you can find modern architecture again. with these buildings i always have a hard time finding any infos on them, especially since they are residential areas and often have more parties living inside them as well. i don't think they are important enough to note down an architect's name, and if someone did, you will definitely only find it by digging deep in the city's archives perhaps.
anyway, i loved the planting and balcony situations of this particular home, which i guess was built in the 1980ies. ( and yes, i realize i might be a bit crazy about wanting to find out everything there is to know about certain buildings 😅 i want to get to the bottom of things, so i can learn to better differentiate certain styles, certain aspects. maybe i should have gone to university after all, with this thirst for knowledge 😂 )
bodinier's beautyberry always coming to the forefront in autumn 😍
excuse the going overboard, please :D i just love this plant.
i somehow liked this display which announced the ballet school of one vera stifter-bornheim behind those gates. the former owner does not teach anymore, but the school still exists today, lead by a new teacher.
i was not sure if this house was abandoned or not, but i am leaning towards abandoned, otherwise there would not have been this funny drawing on that boarded up entry 😂
close-up of the monster guarding the house. isn't it posh with its polka-dotted bowtie?
the house itself was very interesting to me, since it had details that looked very luxurious, but otherwise was built in a very sober mid-century style. the stone door frames especially has taken a shine on me.
storm drains like this always remind me of the clown in stephen king's it 😂
fallen maple leaves.
.
these little caterpillars were strewn all over the ground at some point. i think these are seed heads of the silver birch tree.
beautiful villa from 1925, built by one p. auber. apparently this building synergies historicized and modern elements, i even see components of bauhaus in there ( the cubic basic form and the shape of some of the windows ).
the decor of the porticus is what makes this otherwise inornate looking villa charming.
snail detail on a random iron gate! isn't it the cutest?
blazing red upgrading a rather unimposing building.
i was really smitten with this tree ❤
great colours! i loved that deep bordeaux shade, accompanied by bits of black and orange, turning it all into a very fiery colour explosion!
by now, i wasn't on richard-wagner-straße anymore, but instead strolled down tennelbachstraße. it is situated in the tennelbach valley named after the rivulet flowing through it. various modern buildings line this street, some of them, like this one, post-modern in style. while the building itself feels kind of unassuming, one little detail about it was outstanding. the arched balcony! apparently this building is still very exclusive, i've seen ads selling a 3-room appartment ( 90 squaremeters ) for freaking 1.230.000 euros!
for being such an exclusive address, i feel like the administration should probably renovate some parts of that building 😂 upon closer look you can see symptoms of decline much more clearly. the people living inside the top level of that building probably don't like the dirty-looking roof of the balcony arch much either.
the tennelbach valley is only covered with residentials on one side, the other side stayed natural and is a little park. this is because the valley is important for fresh air supply for the city, so building here is not allowed because it might impair the air-flow corridor. so that leaves us with another little green patch of nature, which in this case enhances this particular area and turns it into a quiet, peaceful living space for the people owning a home here.
looks a bit like a modern pyramid, this appartment building. structures like this were often built in the 1970ies and 1980ies and we have a few similarly looking objects throughout the city. unfortunately, like with many buildings from this era, there is close to no information on the architects or the dates of origin to be found anywhere in the open sea of the world wide web, but maybe, at one time in the future, these will turn into some kind of listed gems? or will be torn down, though i personally think of these as super cool modern architecture.
all of these balconies must get so much sun! i love the multilevel composition!
some random mushrooms i found walking through the park. i think they were pavement mushrooms - an old one and a young one. i have problems with identifying these kinda mushrooms, there are so many look-alikes.
this cluster of homes was designed and built by the local property developer ER-BAU. i don't know when exactly they were built, but it can't be too long ago. maybe in the last 5 years? fact is, they definitely look very upscale ( but kinda cute? ).
also very cute, but in a different way, this turn-of-the-century art nouveau-inspired gem. it is situated in the eigenheim district, a villa quarter of wiesbaden, which was set up between 1904 and 1915, which falls right into the time when art nouveau was the rage amongst people. there are many quirky houses from that era in this quarter, but by now it is also interspersed with mid-century & modern homes. it is not always clear when a building got erected, it seems like they aren't on any official landmark lists. which would be quite a shame, because these definitely deserve to be in them!
since it was almost halloween, pumpkins could be found everywhere!
totally adored this pegasus relief! that's why i think it's unbelievable that these homes are not listed, there are some really exceptional buildings in this quarter! i think the reason behind this is that most of these houses were built under a housing cooperative led by townspeople, which bought the building materials and organized the whole construction process. it seems that through this approach the architects and home-owners worked very closely together, which might have led to some idiosyncratic solutions. this way the architects couldn't really claim that it was entirely their design and product, because they were just co-working on that project. i'd really would like to know if there's still any info on the initial cooperative out there, alas, i think only a visit to the archive might help with that. ( maybe i should really consider consulting the city's archive, but i've got the feeling that if i turn up and tell them i want to start researching they might ask me why. and since i don't have a plausible reason other than personal gain of knowledge and using it for a blog that has basically no traffic, they might not permit me entry and insight 😅 ).
forever admiring the colour change of the leaves ❤
gingko splendor!
a short stop at my most favourite wiesbaden church: mauritiuskirche! i have written a long post solely on this church, so check it out! ( even though returning to that post to me is also a little bit bittersweet 😅 ) and while you're at it, check this post out, too, it has more exterior shots.
a bright speck of colour!
i loved this red/blue combo!
the oecumenic kindergarten of the st. mauritius & st. thomas commune. the original building from the 1960ies still exists but in 2010 the managers of the kindergarten decided to expand and modernize the outdated building. planungsring ressel architekten ( which have historical ties to st. mauritius ) were hired to tackle this project and what came of it, you can now see here. this is a curtain-wall facing that was projected onto the front of the kindergarten building.
a wall of gorgeous creamy amber & fiery red vine leaves.
this buildings was kind of curious to me, as it was cased into a marble-like stone. it had some mid-century vibes for sure!
it seems that the building is a two-family home.
is it just me or does it also have a prison vibe? i wonder how the layout inside is and how people would style this strange house...
usually you put these grids on windows to ward off burglars, so maybe there's something more valuable behind them? maybe the inside is also designed with lots of marble and has an ancient roman villa touch, with inside pool and delicate lavatories or something... sometimes i am way too curious 😂
little bauhaus-y modern home, though i think this one is rather contemporary.
this appartment complex, y'all! loved the embellished balconies and how full of plants some of them were! would date this into the 1980ies.
the abstract shapings of the concrete breast took me by storm! also, this balcony in particular made my heart beat louder because of the plant situation 😍
detail shot.
another angle of the same building. would move in immediately if i had the chance!
discovered an overgrown property that looked uninhabited.
but also found some more wilhelminian townhouses! i often actually like the details of some buildings a lot more than the building itself, as was the case with this door! there's some classic elements, but also art nouveau flourishes!
another great detail - this time from a building from 1900. i loved this special vitrified gazebo.
a very gorgeous house from 1897 ( architect: karl schultze ) - inspired by renaissance and baroque architecture. some early art nouveau is mixed in ( look at the wonderful sculpture! ).
zooming in...
... final zoom.
i think i found these figurines in the garden that belongs to the same house, and i found them so quirky!
maybe a nod to the current owners of the house?
from 1889 ( architect unknown ) is this gem, which captivates with the intricate gable friezes and the colourful use of the clinker stones.
the coat of arms inside the front gable. the house was commissioned by a pair of siblings with the family name oeffner, i guess the C and A are the initials of those two. unfortunately couldn't find out much else about them, only that one of them was called clementine.
wiesbaden loves its stately wilhelminian villas, here's another one. jean fürstchen designed it in 1889. allegedly emperor wilhelm II often lodged in this house.
the veranda annex is gorgeously embellished, the artful windows add to that!
and the this sweet main entrance is amazing!
on the opposite side of the street, probably with an amazing view on wiesbaden, is a building from 1895 ( architect unknown ). it looks a little like an italian renassaince villa, but you can also make out a few gothic elements. very special is the mezzanine and the crested cornice with the rich decor! but also the staircase window!
one of the many sculptural details you can find on this building.
i loved these faces, they were so diverse in their facial expressions!
the beautiful staircase window. i wonder what it looks like from within the villa!
of course i need my contrasts like some people need their coffee, so here's a villa with an amazing abstract sculpture in its frontyard! this is another karl schultze villa ( unfortunately i can't find any info on him online ). the sculpture, though, is from someone that is of notice to me! it's a work of otto herbert hajek, one of my favourite artists when it comes to abstract art. he was one of the artists that also contributed to st. mauritius' artwork, which therefore turned it into an outstanding piece of architecture! i don't know when this particular sculpture was brought into this world, but i think it might be a part of this garden since 1993. inside this villa an art gallery had its home between 1989 and 1994, it was called art galerie ressel ( if the name sounds familiar, remember the planungsring ressel? ) and in an exhibit in 1993 otto h. hajek was a participator. the owner of the house, peter ressel is actually an architect, he helped building st. mauritius! his son has inherited the architecture office of his father and continues to realize projects ( such as the kindergarten right next to st. mauritius! ). the gallery probably moved to a different place or got incorporated into another one, i am not sure what happened there. alas, as a reminder of those old times a lot more sculptures reside inside the garden, but this one was most prominent to me! lovin' it!
karl schultze again was responsible for this clinker brick villa inspired by english cottages or swiss chalets ( you decide! ) from 1897. seems like he basically designed whole streets 😂.
vacated and boarded up - a 1860 mansion on the adolfsberg hill. it is situated right next to one of wiesbaden's most exciting construction sites right now - the kureck ( it is right on the other side behind the villa ). on this site a new complex currently is built to replace some 1970ies construction sins and create a shiny and luxurious quarter with a hotel, residential tower, several new villas and a ministry building ( which already was part of the whole thing before, landmarked due to being a noteworthy mid-century creation, renovated since 2018 ). well, this and another historic villa on the adolfsberg are also involved in the kureck plans, they will be restored to full glory and then be rented out or sold to rich people basically! until that happens though, they will remain in some sort of sleeping beauty situation.
one side of the ministry building i mentioned earlier - the hessian ministry for social affairs and integration. it's quite a wonderful mid-century building ( built between 1953 and 1955 by paul schaeffer-heyrothsberge ), most especially because of the natural stone facade and the filigrane fenestration with its cute sun shades!
on my way back home the sun had come out and illuminated the hessian state theater dreamily! the state theater is one of wiesbaden's most magnificent architectural gems and it's a very popular photographic motive! maybe i will try to document this building more thoroughly in the future, but until that happens you will only get snippets from me and the most basic facts, which are that it was built by ferdinand fellner d. jüngere & hermann helmer between 1892 to and 1894.
when you zoom in, the rich decor is revealing itself! on all of the 4 corner avant-corps you will find these panther-led rig sculptures that are controlled by euterpe - one of the 9 muses. she typically symbolizes mucial art and lyrical poetry. the other figurines i don't have a clue what they represent, but my wild guess is that they depict certain theatric roles. the relief that is enclosed between them show some putti-like figures and a coat of arms - that of the city of wiesbaden - with the 3 characteristic fleur-de-lis that refer to the erroneous assumption of 16th century people that charlemagne, the big frankish emperor, founded wiesbaden ( he did not, romans did in 121 A.D. ).
passing by the park 'warmer damm', which is adjacent to the state theater.
its autumn dress was quite a delight!
this pond is one of the main attractions of the park.
sometimes i randomly discover details that make me super excited, and this was one of those times! on the facade of the nassauischer kunstverein - a center for contemporary art - you could find this statement: to every age its art...
... to art its freedom.
apparently it's a motto of the secession movement, of which gustav klimt or koloman moser were some of the most prominent representatives. this particular statement can also be found in the gable of the secession building in vienna!
i totally agree with these words, as in every phase of humanity, art has been an important element in developing human being's understanding of the time they were in. but at the same time, a new generation would eventually take the earlier forms of art and shape them into something new, which to me is essential when it comes to art. there are no limits and boundaries, even with the way human beings are prone to compartmentalize everything into neat little boxes. yes, of course it is important to know from which time a certain creation comes and to understand the context it was coming from, but i also personally think that you can take that same thing and create something new, shine a different light on it, create a new way of seeing it. that is the freedom of art. and to me, that also applies to architecture. that's why i love contrasts in architecture, or when you can witness the coalescence of various historic types of it. i think the convergence of timelines are what makes art and history and architecture and... basically everything more interesting!
and because of that, i think that my curiousity to delve into some things so deeply might mean that i am just trying to make sense of humanity and learning of the interrelations between what we see now and what was back then? it's a grand ambition, and i am definitely not equipped with the right academic knowledge and wisdom one would need who goes on such a quest, and i also do not have the intention to create something tangible with it, so... whereever this desire to research deeply and gather knowledge is coming from, in my case it might just be a pastime due to the lack of properly establishing the right career choices and family planning 😂 you know, amusement basically, to fill the human experience cavities in my existence!
until next time, continueing to be curious, no matter how empty i am inside 😏
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