Black Forest Open Air Museum

Today was all about the Black Forest and it's history. Leaving the Sonnenblick Hotel, about which I cannot say enough good things, I drove south through the Black Forest. The woods are pretty tame these days, but 2000 years ago humans had just started encroaching on the edges of the forest. Six hundred years later the Benedictine monks started moving deeper into the forest seeking solitude and establishing monasteries, which in turn drew settlers, and the forest became, for the most part, tamed. 

It is carefully tended now. Germans don't seem to have taken to clear-cutting. They thin and maintain. It's really beautiful. The area through which I drove became quite steep, and I saw one altitude sign of over 1000 meters. And of course some of the woods were clear cut to provide the farm land. So the woodlands and the open farmlands are interspersed, with the hamlets and villages in the valleys, on the sides of the hills. I thought it interesting that in the villages, the older houses are built on the hillsides, and the newer buildings are on the flatter lands that were tillable. 

Another interesting thing is that industry, manufacturing primarily, but timber as well, can be found in remote little valleys. I assume this must be because the rail system makes it easy to access both labor and raw materials, plus get their goods to market. 

The museum is a treasure with building dating back to the very early 1600's. The collection includes various types of farm buildings from different regions within the Black Forest. The buildings also have exhibits regarding how these people lived in the dates of the occupation of the buildings. 

Once again it is apparent that our ancestors were very hard working and innovative people. I think they smelled pretty bad though, because these houses didn't have any chimneys, and the animals lived there too. I was amazed at the American Homesteader's Museum, but this predates the American expansion by centuries. 

Yes, I have pictures, but no, I'm not posting them because of the narrow bandwidth I'm facing tonight. Instead, here is the little church across the road and down in the dell from the Sonnenblick. Built in 1762, its bells will charm you if you stay nearby. 

And here is the best way ever to stack your firewood. Ever.