Christmas in Germany: Quedlinburg
I am captivated by medieval towns. They speak to me. Maybe I can hear them from several centuries back, when I could have been a shoemaker’s apprentice, hammering away in a candle-lit workshop. Or maybe I was a gooseherd or the local starving minstrel. Or maybe I read too many picaresque novels and folk tales.
I also have a soft spot for winter scenery, with snowy gabled houses, smoke rising from chimneys, people shuffling and trudging in their winter coats, warm light in the windows, smells of fir tree, baked apples and cinnamon, a hearty hot stew bubbling in a cauldron.
Now put all these together. Come on, imagine it. You may go directly to Dickens’ Victorian carols or Andersen’s melancholic or somber hygge, but where I go is a medieval German town in December.
Follow me, there’s a particular one that you will love:
Quedlinburg at Christmas time
As the sun rises over the Harz mountains, the busy trade town of Quedlinburg, the “holiday“ traditional destination of the Ottonian dynasty of Saxon monarchs, comes to life. The king might only come at Easter time, but his sister, the Abbess from the convent up the hill, will not tolerate idleness in any season. Especially now, when all the merchants in the duchy come through the town for winter provisions.
This is the tanners’ house. This time of the year the guild is restless because everybody needs thick winter garments and warm pelts. Come spring, when the witches on the Broken dance the snow away, they will find the time to rest. But now is not that time, because Frau Holle, Old Mother Frost, is fluffing her pillows and cold white flurries are starting to fall from the clouds.
This is the shoemakers’ yard. Don’t bother knocking, nobody will answer because their ears have become impervious to all hammering sounds.
This is the bakery cart from the monastery up the hill. The sisters lumber it down the cobbled streets every morning, bringing warm bread and cold stares.
This is the confectioner’s house. He boasts that his cheesecake is the best in town. The one and only. The original. He is the Cheesecake King. His thunderous gasconade is directed at the baker across the street, who also sells sugar confections. The town residents don’t take sides and buy equitably from both.
This is the butcher’s hut. His sausages are famous throughout the land. Competitors are trying to copy his sausage recipe, but only his are the true Thüringers (die echte Thüringer). Of course, this is what all the other butchers and grillers in the neighbouring towns say too.
The important thing is that the traditional recipe for the Thüringer Bratwurst stays safe and sound, protected in the Weimar Archives since 1613.
This is the winemaker’s hut. When he is not rolling wine barrels up- and downhill to the abbey, he lights up a rum-soaked sugar lump held by fire tongs, which melts and drips into the bubbling hot spice wine bowl. Feuerzangenbowle is a heavenly concoction, superseding the regular mulled wine / Glühwein, both in strength and aroma.
And this is the townsfolk and burghers of Quedlinburg, gathering in the evening for a heartfelt session of Christmas caroling around the rotating pyramid and the Christmas tree in the market place.
Quedlinburg’s Christmas market may last just a month, but the town keeps its medieval charm all year round. It is probably the most beautiful in winter, with all the extra decoration and enchantment, despite the fact that snow is actually not very common. The Harz mountains in the vicinity influence the local weather in such a way that Quedlinburg is one of the driest places in Germany.
Here’s some more medieval winter magic from Quedlinburg at Christmas time:
St. Benediktus
Finkenherd, built in the 1500s. The legend says that King Henry the Fowler first found out he had been elected king while bird hunting in these whereabouts.
St. Servatius or the Quedlinburg cathedral, former abbey founded in the year 936.
An Epiphany tradition: chalking the doors. Putting together the year, star of Bethlehem and the blessing Christus mansionem benedicat / May Christ bless the house, the resulting formula is like this: 20*C+M+B+20.
Check out more photos in the slideshow below or
go straight to the photo gallery Quedlinburg to see them full screen.
Pin me!
