The third and last city we visited in Germany was
Hannover, capital of the province of Lower Saxony.
Hannover has about 515 000
inhabitants and was documented for the first time in the 11
th century. The city is one of the most important exhibition cities in the world and hosts many international exhibits every year.
This pic of The New Town Hall (
Das neue Rathaus) was taken from my hotel room balcony. I just stood there every evening enjoying the view of this magnificent building and was lucky enough to see the inside of it just before we left. It was built between 1901 and 1913 and replaced the old town hall built in the 14
th century.
The French artist Niki
de Saint
Phalle created the bright and trendy figures called "
Nanas" They have become
synonymous with
Hannover and you fins all kinds of
souvenirs and postcards featuring them.
The
Herrenhauser Gardens is one of the big attractions of the city and covers 135 hectares. There are different sections to the gardens ranging from statues and fountains to English style landscapes, botanical collections and rare plants. Unfortunately we were there in late autumn and there wasn't much to the gardens, but they were still breath taking. I can't imagine what they would look like in spring and summer.
Tomorrow I will finish of with Germany in Hannover's old town area.
During the Second World War 85% of Hannover was destroyed during the Allied bombings. This means that only a small part of historic Hannover was preserved. The historic part of Hannover is called the Old Town and was beautifully restored. To me these buildings are what I would call typical European (or at least German) buildings and I just loved the architecture, colours and specially the wood used in the structures.
The church in the background is the Lutheran Kreuzkirche and dates from 1333. The church also contains a tombstone with the oldest depiction of a family and dates from 1332. The narrow cobbled streets was another of the old European charms which caught my fancy.
In yesterday's post I showed a picture of the New Town Hall. The old Town Hall or Altes Rathaus is situated in the Old Town. The original walls of the old town hall originates from the mid 15th century. Of p[articular note are the pinnacle gable and clay mouldings of the building. The church on the left is the Market Church which was built in the 14th century.
