Hi Hive friends!
Today my exploration tour with you in Wismar goes into the next round:) As you may already know, we didn't have the best weather, but that didn't stop us from exploring the city and taking some photos. I hope you had a pleasant start to the week yesterday!

The oldest town house and its history

First I wanted to tell you about the oldest town house in Wismar: The "Old Swede". Actually, we use these two words when we are surprised about something, then we say "Old Swede" - but here it probably has a different meaning.

The facade looks great, doesn't it? I can well imagine that this small restaurant is a tourist magnet in summer.

The "Old Swede" is one of the most valuable late Gothic secular buildings in Germany. As you can see, it is a brick building with a stepped staircase gable and windows decorated with eyelash ornaments. It was built around 1830.

In the Middle Ages, the first floor contained living quarters and business premises, above which was a storage floor. In 1878 finally zoh an inn in neo-Gothic style, and so the house got the name "Old Swede". It is not the saying that is meant here, but the affiliation to Sweden from 1648 to 1803. In 1977 the building was restored from scratch and the original condition was restored by freeing the front facade, the half-timbered back gables and the interiors from the previous structural changes. On the first floor, the high hallway probably occupies the entire width of the house. The living quarters were located in an attached half-timbered building. During the time even the use changed a few times by the different owners.

As you can see, it is nowadays used as a historic restaurant and is a real eye-catcher on the market square.The menus looked great: for the day there were medallions of wild boar saddle on forest mushroom sauce and served with Brussels sprouts and croquettes, the price: 17.80 euros. I would have liked to try that. If we hadn't eaten something just before, we would have definitely gone in for a meal. The opportunity will definitely come again!I thought how everything was arranged- the pots with the plants, the window frames, the head on the door and the menus- it looked like attention to detail.

A town hall and its reconstructions in different times

Here you can see the town hall of Wismar - a neoclassical building, which was built from 1817 to 19 on the market square. It was designed by Johann Georg Barca, who was the court architect at that time. During the Second World War, the east wing of the town hall was damaged a little bit, so it was restored afterwards and the front facade was reworked in Socialist Classicism (at that time, of course, in the spirit of the now ruling system).

In the western part there are still remains of the previous house from the second half of the 14th century. As you can see here was at the time when we were there still Christmas market - but a short time later it was unfortunately also closed.



Here in the red jacket on the picture that's me- it had rained shortly before again and again, so I could arm myself for the next shower:D

Water art and fresh spring water with Nix and Nixe

This work what you see here on the photo has attracted us in a special way in the spell: It is the "Wismar water art" and is located in the middle of the market square. It is considered the landmark of the Hanseatic city of Wismar. The function was directed according to the principle of the running fountain. It was built from 1579 to 1602 - but quite a while if you ask me. It is a dodecagonal building in the style of the Dutch Renaissance. The hood is made of copper.

In the past, several hundreds of houses and public water taps received fresh spring water through this facility. In the past there were two bronze figures as water conductors, but later they were removed. They were called Nix and Nixe, but among citizens rather Adam and Eve. In the vernacular, however, the terms Frauloch and Mannloch also occurred, so the figures were entfertn out of shame and brought to the museum Schabbelhaus. A funny story, do not you think?!:)


In my last post I told you a little bit about the old water tower - it was connected to the water art on the market square with wooden pipes. These pipes were later replaced by iron pipes. Can you recognize the signs with the red background and the golden writing? The drinking water supply of the previous time is described here in Latin. Now, after the restoration, there is also a German writing next to it. In 1897, this type of water supply was replaced by a new type. Local institutions supported the restoration of the water art in the past and it did not suffer any damage during the fire at the Christmas market in 2005.


Here again a photo on the market place, centrally in the back you can see the city hall.
For me, there's always something very exciting about exploring the area around where I live, it's a kind of short vacation, even if you're not lying on the beach at 30 degrees:) You can discover many beautiful spots that you usually pass by, but do not always notice and do not pay much attention to.
I hope you enjoyed my post about the Hanseatic city- I personally experienced Wismar as a very beautiful, somewhat quiet city and perhaps a little abandoned when compared to other cities of size. But it was pleasant to explore the area there and people were very friendly when you asked them for directions. If you have any suggestions, feel free to write them in the comments!:)
Have a great day!