Jaap van 't Veen's photos with the keyword: half timbered house

Limburg - developed around a castle from the late 7th century - was first mentioned in documents in the year of 910 as "Lintpurc", when the St. George monastery was founded by Konrad Kurzbold. The town became stone ramparts in the 12th and following centuries. The construction of a new church belonging to St. George monastery started in 1200. Around that time a new castle was built south of the new church. The plague ravaged Limburg in 1344. The town then underwent a steady decline until the early 19th century, when the rise of the Duchy of Nassau (1806-1866) gave a new lease of life to Limburg. In 1827, Limburg became the seat of a diocese and in 1886 it was made district capital. Nowadays Limburg's old town offers a maze of cobble stoned streets, lined with crooked half-timbered houses some dating back to the 13th century, but most of them are ‘just’ from the 17th or 18th century.

Ledbury is a small, yet bustling and vibrant market town in Herefordshire. It offers quite a lot of beautiful Tudor timber framed black and white buildings. Among them the Market House (PiP 3) on stilts, building started in 1617 and was completed in 1668. It is considered being one of the most beautiful examples in England and still hosts markets. But for me the most picturesque part of the town was Church Lane (main picture, PiP’s 1 and 2). A beautiful medieval cobble stoned street just behind the Market House, lined with stunning timber framed structures, offering tea rooms, a museum and at the end of the quaint street a beautiful church. It felt if I was stepping back in time.

Chester Rows can be found in the four main streets in the centre of Chester. They consist of covered and continuous half-timbered walkways at the first floor with shops and other premises. At street level there are also retail premises, which can be entered by going down a few steps. Some original 13th century buildings, have survived the ravages of time, but many of the impressive facades are Victorian copies. The Rows, with its double-decker architectural design, are unique in the world. The earliest written records of the Rows date back to the 11th and 12th centuries, but it’s possible they actually existed in some form for many centuries before that. Most probably they may have been built on top of rubble remaining from the ruins of Roman buildings. Still their origin is subject to speculation. Undercrofts were constructed beneath the buildings in the Rows. The undercrofts were in stone while most of the buildings in the Rows were in timber.

Marktplatz (Market square) in Heppenheim during blue hour with the town hall (l) and half-timbered houses. The town hall (Rathaus) was built in 1561. After the city fire of 1693 the baroque half-timbered Rathaus was rebuilt in 1705/06.

Most of the timber framed houses in Shrewsbury are dating back to the 15th and 16th century and were erected in the ‘golden years’ of wool trade in the city. Abbot’s House in Butcher Row in the centre of town is one of the oldest timber framed houses in Shrewsbury. The house was built in 1459 by the Abbot of Lilleshall as an investment for his abbey. The windows at the bottom of were all separate butchers' shops, used until the mid-1800s; on the floors were tenements.

Neubrandenburg - founded in the year of 1248 - is famous for its medieval heritage of Brick Gothic. The city centre itself exists of harsh GDR architecture. One of the main features of Neubrandenburg is it largely intact medieval city wall. The wall has a perimeter of 2,3 km and is 7 m high. The four Brick Gothic city gates see PiP’s), dating back to the 14th and 15th centuries, gave the city its nick name "Stadt der Vier Tore" (City of Four Gates). Wedged into the stone wall are the 27 half-timbered houses that remain of the original 56 sentry posts. When firearms rendered such defences obsolete in the 16th century, the guardhouses were converted into so called “Wiekhäuser”; homes for the poor, disadvantaged and elderly. Most of the surviving homes have been rebuilt and are now craft shops, galleries and cafes.

Limburg - developed around a castle from the late 7th century - was first mentioned in documents in the year of 910 as "Lintpurc", when the St. George monastery was founded by Konrad Kurzbold. The town became stone ramparts in the 12th and following centuries. The construction of a new church belonging to St. George monastery started in 1200. Around that time a new castle was built south of the new church. The plague ravaged Limburg in 1344. The town then underwent a steady decline until the early 19th century, when the rise of the Duchy of Nassau (1806-1866) gave a new lease of life to Limburg. In 1827, Limburg became the seat of a diocese and in 1886 it was made district capital. Limburg's old town offers a maze of cobble stoned streets, lined with crooked half-timbered houses some dating back to the 13th century, but most of them are ‘just’ from the 17th or 18th century. The St. George Cathedral is Limburg’s landmark, situated on a little hill, is one of the best examples of late Romanesque architecture in Germany. The church was built between 1200 and 1235, it was elevated to the rank of cathedral in 1827. I took this picture from a parking garage in the city centre with the former town hall in the foreground and the St. Georg Cathedral above the old town in the background.