Jaap van 't Veen's photos with the keyword: maison à colombages

Franconian Switzerland ( Fränkische Schweiz ) is a well known tourist area between the cities of Nürnberg, Bayreuth and Bamberg. The region is a natural wonderland featuring soft rolling forested hills, steep cliffs and green river valleys. It is a backdrop for medieval castles, monasteries, churches and quaint villages with half-timbered houses. One of the most picturesque villages is (at least for me) Tüchersfeld, where it looks if the houses are dropped at random at the rocky pinnacles. Until the Thirty Years' War (1618 – 1648) there were even two castles in the village, the Upper and Lower Castle. From the Upper Tüchersfeld Castle only a view remains have survived. The Lower Castle was destroyed and rebuilt several times, till it was completely destroyed in 1691. Around 1700 a Jewish settlement was established in the remaining ruins. The Jewish settlement was destroyed by fire in 1758, but the remains of the old buildings were included in the newly constructed buildings. Till around 1870 Jewish families lived in Tüchersfeld. In 1959 the remaining buildings, known as the "Jew's Court" ( Judenhof , were bought by a private person and after a complete restoration it now houses the Franconian Switzerland Museum ( Fränkische Schweiz-Museum ).

Idstein is nestled in the soft rolling hills of the Taunus Mountains. The city - granted city and market rights in 1287 by King Rudolph of Habsburg - dates back at least to the year of 1102, when the name first appeared in a court document, involving Udalrich and Konrad von Etichestein. Count Udalrich was succeeded in Idstein by the counts of Laurenburg, relatives of the archbishop of Mainz, who gave Idstein castle to them. From the middle of the 12th century, the Laurenburg family named themselves after the castle of Nassau. During this period the city became attached to Nassau and remained so until 1866. Besides the former castle complex and the beautiful Union Church ( www.ipernity.com/doc/294067/47426278 ) Idstein has a mediaeval town centre ( Altstadt ) with about 200 timber framed buildings. The oldest remaining house (Obergasse 2) was originally built around 1410. Many of the houses date from the late 16th and early 17th centuries. The two main squares - König-Adolf-Platz (PiP 1) and Marktplatz - and nearby streets are lined with numerous timber framed houses (PiP 3 and 4 ). The most magnificent and richly decorated house is the Killingerhaus (PiP 2, the central house ), built in 1615 by town clerk Johann Conrad Killing. Another remarkable building is the Crooked House (main picture). This Schiefes Haus was built in 1725 as a four storey house. Idstein is part of the German Timber-Frame Road ( Deutsche Fachwerkstraße ), connecting towns with timber framed buildings.

Petite France (also called Gerberviertel = “tanners district”) is the most charming, beautiful and best preserved parts of the historical centre of Strasbourg with its bridges, black and white timber-framed buildings and winding streets. It is considered being one of the most picturesque places in France. In the early 12th century, Strasbourg began to expand southwards, extending the mediaeval ramparts right up to the delta formed by the river Ill. Petite France grew up around the four arms of the river. With houses built along narrow twisting streets the neighbourhood was markedly different to the much more bourgeois sector around the cathedral. The magnificent half-timbered houses date from the 16th and 17th centuries. Their sloping roofs open out onto lofts where hides were once dried. The canals built in the Middle Ages brought in fishermen and small industries, including tanneries (the smell of which had to be kept away from the more patrician residences of the city), three flour mills and a lots of other trades. The name Petite-France ("Little France") was not given for patriotic or architectural reasons. It comes from the Hospice des Vérolés, which was built in the late 15th century in the area, to cure persons with syphilis, then called Franzosenkrankheit ("French disease") in German. Petite France is a part of the UNESCO World Heritage Site of Grande Île, designated in 1988.