Half-Timbered House
Gable on a huge half-timbered house in the Maulbronn Monastery complex in Germany’s Black Forest. Today, this medieval building serves as administrative offices and residences for this UNESCO world heritage site. If my research is correct, it previously housed a ducal finance office and treasury. And before that, an older stone building on whose foundation this one was built may have been used for stables, an oat barn, or bakers’ and servants’ quarters.
Our guide told us that most of the shingles are original to the structure, with replacements made only when necessary for repairs. Note the carved head (I almost missed it myself!) on the central vertical beam just above the blue shutters.
Uploaded on December 06, 2008