Our 2013 European Adventure: More on Rothenburg

So now I'll pick back up where I left off in Rothenburg.
We had to rush through the last of the Imperial City Museum because it was almost time for the English tour at the St. Jakob's Church. So we hurried back there and joined the tour that had just started. Actually, the guide's accent was so thick and he spoke so softly that I didn't get much out of it. Really enjoyed looking around the old church, though.

The front of the church with the High Altar (1466) - also called the Twelve Apostles Altar
The stained glass windows behind were made from 1350 to 1400.

The apostles and Jesus
If you look closely at Peter (just to left of Jesus) you'll notice he's wearing glasses.

Back of the church
Notice the giant organ back there.

Altar of the Virgin Mary by an unknown artist probably made about 1520.

Altar of the Holy Blood
By Wurzug sculptor Tilman Riemenschneider in 1499-1505
It was made to house a relic set in a cross from 1270. You can't see it in this picture.

A closer view of the middle section
It's a carving of the Last Supper. Judas is in the center receiving the bread from Jesus, up to the left.
The left panel is Jesus' ride into Jerusalem and the right is the Garden of Gethesemane.

One of the paintings behind the High Altar - painted so Jesus' eyes seem to follow you

Outside the church

Statue of St. Jakob in front of church

St. Jakob's Church was built starting in the first half of the 14th century and completed by the year 1471. It is dedicated to the apostle James (Jakob in German.) He is the patron saint of pilgrims. This church was on the route pilgrims took to the grave of St. James in Spain. His symbols are the pilgrim staff and a shell. You can see them in the picture above. There were also some interesting statues outside the church.

This is Jesus praying at Gethesemane - 14th century

An original statue from 14th century - limestone doesn't stand up too well under 500 years of weather
Most of the statues were moved to the Imperial City Museum to preserve them.

Then we headed out of the town walls to see the Castle Garden. It is on the site of the Red Castle (rothen means red) that was destroyed in the 14th century by an earthquake.

Heading through the gate

The gate to the town.
Taran is standing next to the "man hole". Those coming back to the city after curfew could bribe the gatekeeper to let them in. The door was small enough that an armed enemy could not get through.

Looking across what once was a drawbridge - see the chain slots.
Also notice the face high in the wall - that's what the soldiers would pour boiling pitch through onto attackers.

There were some great views of the city from the garden. We also saw the castle chapel, the only part of the castle that is still standing. It is now a memorial to the Jews that were massacred there in 1298.

View from garden looking back at the city

Castle Chapel

Inside chapel

Then is was off to the Medieval Crime and Punishment Museum. Very interesting. Torture seemed to be an art form for the medieval people. We saw all sorts of painful looking devices, shame masks, etc.

Not sure what this had to do with crime and punishment but it was a great Piper-sized doorway.

Shame masks - different ones based on the crime
People were made to wear them in the stocks.

An iron maiden

More unpleasant stuff

The barrel on the left is what a drunkard were forced to wear - the drunk tank

Andrew thought the worst one was a wooden frame that they would lock the prisoner's feet in and people would come by and tickle the feet with feathers. Or worse still, they'd coat the prisoners feet in salt and let goats lick it off. I liked the double violin - a wooden frame shaped like two violins stuck side-by-side with holes cut out for the head and hands. Bickering women were put in it until they could get along. = )

We finished the day with a tour with the night watchman. He took us around the city telling us its history. He was very informative and very funny. We all really enjoyed the tour.

Piper and Taran with the Night Watchman

Some of the more interesting tidbits we learned: Night watchmen were pretty low on the social scale - right above the executioner and the grave digger. There were six watchmen that watched over the town. (Now there is only one - he got rid of the others, he said.) Their job was not only to watch for criminals but also to sound the alarm if a fire broke out. Fires, of course, could wipe out medieval towns.

Rothenburg was a rich city in its beginning. Pilgrims and traders came through often and spent their money there. In 1400, it had a whopping population of 6000 - one of the largest in the empire. The city had great strong walls and the surrounding cities that tried to invade Rothenburg never succeeded.

But then the Thirty Years' War happened. Rothenburg wasn't much involved in it but its location made it a handy stopping spot for rampaging armies. So one of these armies (Catholic) was on its way to decimate another town when they got stopped by rain - lots of rain. They decided to winter in Rothenburg (Protestant) and sent a messenger to tell the city to get ready for them. The people of Rothenburg knew this was not good news. This army was Catholic and therefore would not treat Protestants kindly not to mention the number of soldiers in that army was more than the population of Rothenburg - they'd eat them out of house and home!! So they said no way and shut up the gates confident that the could once again repulse the enemy. Things were going all right until the guy in charge of the gunpowder (that was kept in a tower in the city wall) decided to take a torch into the gunpowder room. Well, it blew up and also blew a big hole in the wall. Rothenburg immediately surrendered. The conquering army came in and had their revenge - 300 of their men where killed outside the wall while Rothenburg had only lost 2 (the guy with the torch and his assistant). They soon more than even-upped the score.

After the Thirty Years' War, Rothenburg fell on hard times. It was very poor so it was unable to modernize - which is the reason it is the best preserved medieval city, preserved by poverty.

In 1945, right before the end of World War II, Rothenburg was bombed by the Allies pretty heavily. One of the important Nazi generals had fled here with his men from Heidelberg. He had given orders not to surrender under any circumstance. So the Allies were set to destroy Rothenburg and they did destroy over a third of the town. Then an American officer whose mother had been to and loved Rothenburg heard about the operation. He managed to get Rothenburg a chance to survive. They were given the choice of surrendering to the Allied forces or the bombing would continue until the town was flattened. Luckily the Nazi general was not in the town when the offer came in. His aid recognized that they were doomed so he agreed to surrender - Rothenburg was saved!

So there's a bit of Rothenburg history. Hope it wasn't too boring. I'm not as entertaining as the night watchman, unfortunately. He was not boring at all.

Before heading for home we walked a bit along the wall. We got home very late and very tired.