Today we have a face that’s looking at us everytime we come and go from our apartment building.
It’s in the old door of our apartment building. Our building dates to 1513 and during the remodeling of the building last year, they took the giant wooden doors off the building and mounted them as decorations just inside the front door. The new doors are made of glass, which you can see in this photo I took of the building back before the renovations were complete. However, the old doors weren’t put back up (on the walls) until later, so they aren’t in that photo, as it turns out.
Anyway, Chris pointed out this nice “face” in the wood the other day. It’s the type of face I used to find and take photos of all the time back in Bolzano. I haven’t seen as many faces in inanimate things lately here in Tübingen, so it was fun to see this one. It took a couple of days for the lighting to be right, but we finally had a sunny day the other day, so I was able to snap this photo:
Face in the old wooden door of our early 1500s apartment building
I can’t swear that this face has been there since we moved in, but since the door is definitely old, I have to assume it has been keeping an eye on us the whole time. Whether the door dates from 1513, when the building was built, isn’t clear to me, but as I said, it’s definitely old.
Anyway, a fun little face to mark the final day of our eleventh month in Tübingen.
Do you see a resemblance to Martin Luther, who was 30 when your building went up?
Whether or not, it’s stunning visually. It frankly doesn’t look very strong as doors go, but it sure would be striking hanging on a wall.
An interesting “face.” Perhaps your landlord can tell you about the door with the face. At least verify its age and explain the finish that appears to be worn.
The face looks as if it may come from the Late 12th century It is identical to that which was engraved on stones near celtic ruins, which was then used in the doors of Medieval Christian Churches and was usually between either two Gargoyles or a couple of Sheela na gigs.
This is all documented in my notes that soon will be published in the Neo encyclopedia of archeological absurdities and hoaxes.
Thanks for all the feedback!
@Will, I don’t see a particular resemblance to Martin Luther, but you never know. It’s actually a pretty big, heavy door – I realize now that this portion of the door doesn’t really give the true sense of the size of the door. I’ll try to post another photo of the entire door later in August.
@Mom – yes, I thought perhaps our landlord can tell us more about the door the next time I see him. He might also know what kind of hardware was on the door that left those marks.
@Kathy, I look forward to your encylopedia … I’m assuming you’re starting with last year’s Cardiff Giant “discovery” in Syracuse? 🙂