Old Baking House, a photo from Nordrhein-Westfalen, Ouest

Photographer's Note

This is one of the numerous old baking houses here in my region, which in former times also were a meeting place for men and women of the particular villages. They were rather wise rural equipments because of the fire danger which was diminished by only one baking place per village.
The men take care of the right heat in the big brick oven by burning a lot of branch-bundles, here called "Schanzen", and wood. When heat is sufficient, that means, when the stone walls nearly glow, the ash is swept out and the bread loafs are pushed in. While baking, the loafs several times are wiped with a wet hand-brush to get a good crust.
After bread baking there is still enough heat for cakes on baking sheets.
Here in my region nearly in each village there is such a baking house - often rebuilt - and this former tradition meanwhile is very popular again. There are baking house clubs, which organize baking parties. Then the visitors have the opportunity to buy this very popular bread, here called "Schanzenbrot" - mostly made out of rye flour.

This is the baking house of Holzhausen in the southern part of my region, the Siegerland. You can see that it was built in 1756 - but there are much more older ones here.
Here, here, here and here you can see some other baking houses. They aren't spectacular buildings - but I love them ... and this bread - mhhhhh!

thor68, gildasjan, feather, dorte_s_t, asajernigan, Jakab trouve(nt) cette note utile

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thor68 (5586) 2007-10-06 0:10

hallo frank, das ist ja mal etwas anderes als die großen brotbackfabriken der heutigen zeit - was für ein süßes fachwerkhäuschen
und dann noch so alt - 1756 - wow - da hat sich aber jemand mühe gegeben, das so toll zu erhalten.
in köln werde ich so etwas wohl eher nicht finden, aber in der umgebung müsste ich mal die augen offen halten.
danke & ein schönes wochenende, thor.

gildasjan (43826) 2007-10-06 1:23

Bonjour Frank
Très attirante au regard cette maison aux ouvertures bleues.Une composition bien réalisée nette et bien exposée.
Bel ouvrage.
Bonne journée et bon Week-end.
Amicalement
Gildas

UnTrained (0) 2007-10-06 2:08

Guten Morgen Frank,
sowas gibt es bei uns in der Gegend auch noch, Backhäuser für die Gemeinschaft. Gepflegter Zustand, schöne Farben und aufgeräumtes Bild. Der Blickpunkt ist mit der verschieferten Giebelfront rechts gut gewählt.
Ein sonniges Fotowochenende und Lieben Gruss, Ulf

feather (51130) 2007-10-06 4:11

I love these half timbered buildings which are so common in your area. It's a change for me to see blue doors, which add a wonderful splash of colour to the image. It's a pity about the over-exposed sky; exposure is difficult to manage with a bright sky when the subject is in the shade. Very interesting custom about the baking houses.
Kath

dorte_s_t (2287) 2007-10-06 5:09

Hi , Frank.
What a cute baking house !
Wonderful well preserved half timbered house !Colours are bright and nice too !
Amazing history in your note !
My family had a bakery about the same time in Nysted , but alas , it is not well preserved at all !
And fresh rye bread with cold butter on it : yummmyyyyy :o)
Have a nice and sunny weekend !
Dorte.

asajernigan (21427) 2007-10-06 5:26

Frank,
Nice shot of this great architecture. Your note makes me hungry, I can almost smell the fresh bread baking! The sky is a bit overexposed but it is difficult to prevent this when the subject is in shadow. The bright blue doors add nice contrast to the rest of the colors in this shot.
TFS,
Asa

jasmis (58653) 2007-10-06 13:43

Fine house in traditional style. I would prefer "en face" photo, but it is a detail.
Interesting note included.
Regards my dear friend.

lestans (17258) 2007-10-07 0:06

Ciao Frank!
this is a portrait of a building!
What a lovely backing house, so well maintained.
Greetings from sunny Italy!
Livia

tho_ebert (876) 2007-10-07 0:46

Hi Franck,
Nice shot, the architecture of this house is very close to the one of my last shot, but it was in France...
TFS
Thomas

Jakab (3867) 2007-10-07 14:12

Hallo Frank,
diese Tradition war nicht bekannt für mich. Mir scheint es ein bisschen ähnlich zu den Lavoirs in Südfrankrech wo die Frauen des Dorfes gemeinsam wuschen - wahrscheinlich nicht aus gleichen Gründen wie hier gemeinsam gebackt wurde, allerdings ähnlich ist, dass eine Tätigkeit als Anlass zum Treffen genutzt wurde.
Viele Grüsse
Laszlo

wolf38 (30) 2007-10-15 10:09

Hallo Frank. Ein weiteres Backhaus. Dieses ist farbenfroh mit seinen blauen Türen und Fensterläden. Aber das entscheidende ist, dass dieses Backhaus im sinne der traditionspflege weiter benutzt wird. Auch dieses Bild mit der lesbaren Jahreszahl ist wieder ein gutes Bild für TE. Viele Grüße, Wolfgang.