Visiting R 69 6
Amberg, as many cities in Bavaria, has a beautiful old town to visit. For example, Amberg’s City Hall is designed in the Renaissance style, featuring detailed exteriors and a clock tower.
Even if you can’t make it during the day, it is still beautiful at night.
The “Stadtbrille” (“city glasses”) resembles a pair of eyeglasses when reflected in the water. This arch bridge, built over the Vils River, originally served as part of the city’s fortifications. Its unique design and historical significance make it a popular landmark.
The river Vils runs through the city. I can imagine that high water might be an issue here.
The unconventional “marriage house” (Eh’Häusl)
In 1728, the city council of Amberg decided that couples wishing to marry must demonstrate ownership of a debt-free house and land. Obviously, this was a problem for less wealthy couples. This was exactly the reason for the city council to pass that law in the first place: they wanted to control the birth rate among the poorest population.
Along comes a concerned and smart merchant. In a gap he constructed a facade and a back wall between two adjacent properties, topped it with a roof, and thus met the requirement. After his honeymoon, he sold this “emergency house” to the next couple disadvantaged by the law.
Today the building is not any longer just a facade but properly build and considers itself to be the smallest hotel in the world. If you want to claim that you had a complete hotel all to yourself, here is your shot (this is not a recommendation, I haven’t stayed there).
Understandable art
Sometimes you find sculptures next to official buildings that might be either hard to understand or it takes some time to figure out what it has to do with the place it stands. Not so in Amberg. Here art can be pleasantly obvious and interesting at the same time.
Take for example the survey office. They typically conduct and manage land surveys and mapping activities, ensuring accurate representation of land boundaries, properties, and geographical features for urban planning, development, and legal purposes. In front of their entrance you will find a plumb bob, a tool used to establish a vertical line reference or true verticality for construction, surveying, and architectural purposes.
Next stop – the library. In front of it – men reading.
At the old lifestock market you will finde the “piggy fountain”.
Aliens?
A typical architectural element of the houses in Amberg (and other similar cities) are figures in the facade. See, for example, at the top of the “marriage house” above. Typically, they show some religious figure. However, if the figure is more modern and it is night, you might as well think that a little alien is showing up here 😉.
