Another mystery solved here in Tübingen, this time thanks to Chris.

Here’s a look at the old library building at the University of Tübingen, seen in the photo as I often most often view it, from across the street:

Old Library building, University of Tübingen

When walking by there a few weeks ago, on a bright sunny day,  I was struck by how it looked like the sun was glinting off large windows in the back of the building. I thought to myself,  I really should try to take a photo of that some day.

You see, the shape of the light looked rectangular, just like the shape of the windows in the front of the building, but the light in those back windows was abnormally bright. So, I assumed that somehow the bright sunlight was gleaming in an unusual way off of the windows along the back wall in that large room in the library.

Closeup of rectangles of light through the windows

But then on another day, when the sun wasn’t shining — in fact the sky was quite gray that day — the sun (or so I thought) was somehow again gleaming brightly in those back window panes.

Just one of the rectangles of light

Odd.

Since I was always across the street when I saw it, and was always on my way to some appointment or other with no time to stop and really investigate,  I just filed it in the back of my mind as a mystery to be solved some day.

But then the other day, Chris and I happened to be walking  down the street together in front of that building. The weather that day was rather dreary, but when I glanced at the library building, I noticed that once again I could see that bright light in the interior windows.  I pointed it out to Chris, and asked him what he thought was causing the windows to be lit up so like that.

Now, before I tell you his answer,  I would like to point out in my own defense that Chris is taller than I am. So, perhaps it’s the additional perspective you get from being just that much taller when looking up into the windows.

In any case, Chris  glanced over and said without hesitation, “Those are chandeliers, not windows.”

Ah ha.

Well, that would explain why the sun doesn’t need to be out when I see these bright rectangles of light, eh?

Sigh.

Looking more closing at the lights then, I could see he was probably right. In fact, as I think you can sort of make out in the following photos, the chandeliers are not actually rectangular at all, but circular.  It’s a trick of the light — pun only partially intended —  that make those long light blobs look rectangular, and not circular.

Aha – two rectangles overlap – these aren’t windows after all!

I think in that last photo, and in the next one, where I have enhanced the detail on the light blobs, you can start to see that the top of the chandelier is curved, and the chandeliers themselves are actually made of up long strings of lights, not sold blocks of light.

Clearer that these are most likely two chandeliers

Maybe the next time there’s a bright sunny day, I’ll be able to figure out why I couldn’t figure out these bright blobs of light weren’t windows to begin with. Now that I know they are chandeliers, it’s a mystery to me how I ever saw them as windows in the first place.

Another view from across the street

Consider that the unsolved mystery in the library. 😉