Versailles to Nürnberg in 1964 - post 29

Gardens

Statues

Statue

Looking back toward the palace

Tourists at Versailles

Canal

Fountain

Garden

Gardens


Postcard of Versailles mailed in Nuremburg August 9th

Dear D
Today I saw your uncle at the train station, and he was a sight for sore eyes. I leave for Naples on Wednesday.

Sunday August 9th​

Letter written Weds August 12, 1964 mailed in Munich

Dear Mother

Ever since I left Marseille it has been cold and rainy. They don't ask to see your ticket as often here. From the Spanish border to Marseille, I didn't have to show it at all.

I found that my sister had mis-read my letter and expected me to be here until the 17th. She was crushed to find it not so.

My sister and my niece

I'm sorry I haven't written since I got to my sister's but of course I always have more time to write when traveling. My BIL liked the cannon I bought him in Valencia as my sister's present from Spain and she is saving the Toledo ware that I brought from Toledo as her Xmas present.

BIL met me at the station, which was a blessing, and then I had breakfast and showered and unpacked and they went to church.

Then he babysat with my niece while my sister took me sightseeing in Nuremberg. We saw the clock, fountains and castle.

This was one of the first places that my sister took me when we were touring the city. The figures represent the six virtues love, faith, hope, bravery, patience and humility, crowned by the figure of Justice. The Fountain of Virtue dates from the time of the Renaissance between 1584-1589

Justice and the coats of arms of the city on the top of the fountain

According to the cached version about this fountain on the City of Nuremberg page

In 1589, the iron caster, Benedikt Wurzelbauer, completed the Fountain of the Virtues (Tugendbrunnen), commissioned by the City Council of the Free City of the Empire who had intended to demonstrate their stature in the world. Six allegories of the three theological and the three cardinal virtues with their attributes are placed on a round platform: Faith with a cross and a chalice, Love with two children, Hope with an anchor, Courage with a lion, Moderation with a jug, and Patience with a lamb. Above the figures, cherubs carry the two coats of arms of the City of Nuremberg. The seventh virtue, Justice, stands on the top of the pillar with blindfolded eyes, a sword and a crane as a symbol of alertness. The fountain marks the spatial boundary of Lorenzer Platz towards Königsstraße.

My father's photo of the fountain in 1962


My photo in 1964


side view

For some reason, I have a photo of this statue. I thought he was the man who invented the pocket watch (from his pose) or else was a distant relative. I appear to be wrong about both.

Hans Sachs was born in Nuremberg on 5 November 1494. He was was a German meistersinger, poet, playwright, and shoemaker. As a child he attended a singing school and Latin School. When he was 14 he was apprenticed as a shoemaker. After the apprenticeship was over, he traveled a bit and ended up in Wels Austria. The Emperor Maximilian took him to Innsbruck. He later went to Munich where he apprenticed to be a meistersinger. In 1516 he came back to Nuremberg and remained there for the rest of his life. He married twice - once to Kunigunde Creutzer who died in 1560, and then after she died he married a young widow named Barbara Harscher. He has no known children. He died 19 January 1576.


Statue of Hans Sachs

He was an ardent admirer of Luther and in 1523 he wrote in Luther's honor the poem beginning “The nightingale of Wittenberg, which is heard everywhere” (German: Die wittenbergisch Nachtigall, Die man jetzt höret überall), He wrote over 6000 pieces of various kinds- including at least 4200 Meistersongs. Other writings included poems, Carnival plays, fables and religious tracts. His Meistersongs were not published, being intended solely for the use of the Nuremberg Meistersinger school, of which Sachs was the leading spirit. His fame rests mainly on the “spoken poems”. He was the leading character in the Wagner opera Die Meistersinger von Nürnberg (1868).

Woodcut of Hans Sachs


Gooseman fountain


Gooseman Fountain

My sister took me to visit the Kaiserburg castle

Courtyard from the Kaiserburg Castle tower

which she told me had mostly been reconstructed after WW II. Apparently only the Roman double chapel and the Sinwell Tower remaining entirely intact. The Luginsland tower had been completely destroyed.