Such picturesque half-timbered buildings can be seen in various countries of Europe and even in Japan, but for many, half-timbered buildings are Germany, and Germany is half-timbered. However, the roots of fachwerk go back to ancient times and more distant regions – from the Roman Empire to Ancient Syria.
The oldest wooden half-timbered buildings in Germany that have survived to this day were erected in the second half of the 13th – early 14th centuries. They are in Esslingen (1261), Limburg (1289), Frankfurt am Main (1292) and Marburg (1321). The age has been accurately determined using modern dendrochronological methods.
Among the federal states in terms of the number of half-timbered buildings in Germany, Hesse is the leader – about 400 thousand. In total, there are more than a million such houses in the country, according to some estimates – even about two million. There were more, but many burned down during World War II.
Old Town Hall in Lower Saxon Duderstadt
Hessian city of Schlitz. During the four weeks of Advent, the old tower in this city is turned into the world’s largest Christmas candle.
Half-timbered houses in the historic center of Hessian Limburg
There are about four hundred half-timbered houses in the Hessian Alsfeld
Fachwerk is not a style, but a way of building
Gothic and Renaissance, Baroque and Rococo, Classicism, Historicism, Art Nouveau… Architectural styles succeeded each other, but among the monuments of each of them there are half-timbered buildings. In some small towns, the Old Town Halls have been preserved – for example, in the Lower Saxon Duderstadt. It was built in the middle of the 16th century.
Fachwerk is often called a style, but it is a method of construction, a type of construction from load-bearing pillars and spacer beams. The space between them will be filled with different materials. What exactly? What is found or produced in this region: from a mixture of clay and straw to brick. With plaster or without plaster.
If you want to not only look at the facades, but also look inside, and even see the historical setting, it is best to go to one of the open-air museums, for example, in Diesdorf, Kommern or Detmold. You can also find a small hotel or guesthouse located in an old half-timbered building.
City of Stade in Lower Saxony
Friedrich Schiller was born in this half-timbered house in the Baden-Württemberg town of Marbach am Neckar
Windows of a half-timbered house in the spa town of Bad Sooden-Allendorf in Hesse
Rothenburg an der Fulda in Hesse
3500 kilometers of German fachwerk
For lovers of these attractions in Germany, even a special tourist route has been laid – the German half-timbered path (Deutsche Fachwerkstrasse). This tourist route was created in 1990 by the Association of German half-timbered cities. It runs across the country from the North German city of Stade on the Elbe to Meersburg on Lake Constance. The total length is about 3,500 kilometers – through the territory of Lower Saxony, Saxony-Anhalt, Saxony, Hesse, Thuringia, Bavaria and Baden-Württemberg.
Market Square in Baden-Württemberg Bad Urach
Founded in 1911, the Open Museum in Diesdorf in Saxony-Anhalt is one of the oldest such museums in Germany.
Gate of a typical Lower Saxon half-timbered farmstead in the settlement of Tetomin near the town of Lyukhov
The German half-timbered path consists of seven regional routes, forming a kind of network of a good hundred old German cities, in which a lot of monuments of half-timbered architecture have been preserved.
The map is available at www.deutsche-fachwerkstrasse.de. Here you can also order or download many different information brochures and maps in German or English free of charge or download them in PDF format, as well as get other information, for example about museums, bike tours and events.