Our final stop along the Romantic Road was just outside the town of Creglingen, at Herrottskirche. "Kirche" means church.
It is the home of one of the two famed carved wooden altars done by Tilman Riemenschneider.
You don't know who he is? I thought everyone knew. Okay, you got me. I never heard of him until preparing for this trip, but he is one of the top woodcarvers in history. He also served as mayor of Wurzburg. Some of his carvings were destroyed in WWII, but this one, and one in Rothenburg were carefully stored away and survived. In 1981 he was honored by West Germany with a postage stamp. In 1996, he had an asteroid named after him.
There are at least seven surviving carvings of his, but the two most impressive are the aforementioned carvings. The greatness of his work was rediscovered in the 1800s even though he died in 1531.
Oddly, photos are not allowed of the Altar in Creglingen, but are allowed in Rothenburg, so photos of that altar will be in that blog post. The Marian Retable is believed by people way smarter than me to have been completed after 1508.
There were only two cars -- ours and one belonging to two young women. The church was cold, dark, and beautiful. The church itself was founded in 1389 by brothers Konrad and Gottfried von Hohenlohe-Brauneck, which, if you think about it, are two of the most German names ever.
These are photos are NOT mine. . .I grabbed them off Wikipedia to provide an understanding of how impressive his carving is:
"Every year on August 25, the light falls through the west rosette onto the altar in such a way that the viewer can understand the Assumption of Mary with his own eyes. Originally this date was August 15th: the feast of the Assumption of Mary. Due to the calendar reform at the end of the 16th century, this day was postponed."
It's not the Sistine Chapel or Sagrada Familia, but I'd make the case that Riemenschneider's work is the woodcarving equivalent.
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