Tom`s travels: Neuruppin & Kremmen (09/12/2021)

I woke up to a blanketed snow-covered Berlin and decided not to give in to the temptation of staying in the house in the warmth and instead going on the day trip I had planned. After taking a regional train I then reached the town of Neuruppin, and after getting off the train I was immediately in the city center as the station was so close. I decided then to start walking following the perimeter of the medieval walls, which for the most part, still encircle the old town. I walked along the northern and western perimeter until I passed by the Museum Neuruppin, the main and only museum in town, and reached then the Tempelgarten. This used to be a former fruit and vegetable garden of Crown Prince Friedrich, later turned into a pleasure house in 1735 for his enjoyment. Later on after several passages of ownership, a Turkish villa was built in the 1850s in an oriental style with the gardener's house featuring a minaret and an enclosing wall with gates. From there I continued on and walked along the rest of the western walls and then the southern ones. Then after cutting through some nice streets lined by elegant houses I reached the eastern end of the old town where the large and main church Sankt Trinitatis is located. Built in 1246 with an adjoining monastery, which is now lost, it features a brick Gothic style and a rather empty interior. The church is located right on the western shore of Lake Ruppin in a slightly elevated position as once the walls passed right between the church and the lake, now only parts of them remain. I walked along the lakeshore admiring the view of the church and town from a wooden pier jutting out into the lake. With the light snow falling and the whole surroundings covered in white, it was quite a sight to admire. Heading back to the church and back inside the walled old town I then continued on through a narrow street where I came upon the Siechenkapelle St. Lazarus, a late Gothic North German brick building, once used as a hospital chapel. Right next to the church was the Uphus, built in 1694, and the oldest half-timbered house in town. In fact, Neuruppin, despite being a rather old town founded around the 13th century, had always been a garrison town and due to this suffered great damage during the Thirty Years' War in the 17th century and then a fire in 1787 that destroyed most of it. Thereafter the town was rebuilt with a new grid plan in a Neoclassical style, with orderly streets and low buildings, and thus is known to be the most Prussian of all Prussian towns. I had noticed in fact there were no curving streets and all of them were straight and quite wide with just a few exceptions, especially the one where the aforementioned hospital church was located. As I decided to continue on with the exploration of the town I then passed by the Schulplatz, the large and central square where a large building from 1790, once the Old Gymnasium, was located. In this school some famous individuals, all of which born in Neuruppin, studied here: the painter Wilhelm Gentz, the famous architect Karl Friedrich Schinkel and the poet Theodor Fontane. Regarding the latter, just next to the square, on the main street, I passed by his former birth house. Fontane's father, who was a pharmacist, moved from Berlin to Neuruppin and bought a house with a pharmacy to work there, and curiously enough there is still a pharmacy in function in its spot known as the Lowen Apotheke. Close by I then reached the Kirchplatz where the nice and elegant St Marien church was located. It is a Neoclassical building constructed after the 18th-century fire and is now used for concerts, conferences, banquets, and the like. From there I then decided to have one last stroll around town before turning back to reach the train station from where I took a ride to the next town, Kremmen. From the station, I had to walk a bit to reach the city center, and on the way decided to walk through the Scheunenviertel, or barn district. This was a small area located south of the old town where a series of barns were located close to each other. In fact, like many other towns, Kremmen was hit by the plague in the 17th century and many city fires also happened in 1606, 1630, and 1680. The Brandenburg elector, therefore, issued an order in the mid-17th century that barns were only to be built outside the city walls in the future. This is how the barn district on the outskirts of Kremmen came into being, which is today regarded as Germany's largest surviving historical barn district. Nowadays 40 of the original 70 barns are still preserved, one of which features a museum. It was quite nice to walk through it with the snow still covering the buildings and landscape giving it a winter feel. From there I then walked onwards and reached the old town proper. Here I passed through the main square, the Am Markt, with a nice tall Christmas tree at its center covered in snow as well. In the northern part of town, I then reached the main church, St Nikolai. Dating from the 13th century, this Brick Gothic building was later expanded in the 15th century and features an interior with baroque furnishings such as the main altar from 1686 and the pulpit from 1694. After visiting the church I had a stroll around the rest of the town admiring the nice houses some of which featured timber framings which I really enjoy seeing. After the stroll, it was time for me to go, so I headed towards the train station from where I eventually took the train back to Berlin.