Monday, 28 December 2015

The Nuremberg Trials






I had expected the Palace of Justice to be in the city centre, but in fact it was nearly a mile away.  The building was a prison from 1920, and in the dark it looked quite forbidding - Court Room 600, where the famous trials took place, is still used as a court.  Two photos from late 1945 show the East Wing as it was, and the one between them as it is now.  It was chosen as the site of the trials because the Nazis' laws on Jews, gypsies, homosexuals and the handicapped were promulgated here in the late 1930s. 

The Opera House






The opera house looks like a church, but what else would one expect?  Wagner had no connections with the city other than his opera 'The Mastersingers of Nuremberg', but he gets a bust.  The shop opposite the opera house is called Dirndl und Tracht, and sells the dirndl dresses and Bavarian costume.   



Nuremberg at Dusk







Top - the view from the ramparts; 2 - the view from the Zum Albrecht Duerer Haus; 3 - a roofed bridge; 4 - looking towards the centre; 5 - the reverse view; 6 - Karolinenstrasse with the St Lorenz church at the end.  

Nuremberg Old Town







The old town is hilly and on the top there is a roofed ramparts with watchtowers, most of it rebuilt, presumably, after the heavy air raid of 2nd January 1945.  The steep roofs allow snow to slide off rather than build up, and the little attic windows seem to be a local feature, being mocked in the new building in the bottom picture?  

Frauenkirche, Nurnberg







The Church of Our Lady looks like some of the more rococo of the southern Bavarian Catholic churches, but the interior was more austere, with stone instead of painted stucco.  The worship of the Christ-child was ornate, and the pine-cased organ resembles an angel (or Batman, depending on your taste).

Nuremberg





A pretty medieval town on the River Pegnitz.  The sign reads 'We think of our Prisoners of War not yet returned and of our Missing.  The City of Nuremberg 1952'  The B&W photo shows Nuremberg in 1938.  

Sunday, 27 December 2015

The Hofburg







The area around the Hofburg, seat of the Hapsburg dynasty for several hundred years, was quite dimly lit.  The ring where the fiacres park for customers was wet, though it was not raining, so I expect it was regularly washed-down.  The driver in Pic 5 is taking a photo for his customers in the carriage.  At the cathedral the mist was already beginning to form (it was 6pm) and it was the coldest evening we'd experienced, so we headed back to the hotel, as we had an early departure for Nuremberg the next morning.