The eighth door

Maybe you remember that I told you about our old cemetery before.
Yesterday on the way home I walked by there in the early evening and the silent beauty overwhelmed me. Now this is a place that wears snow very well, so-to-speak. Of course I didn't have my camera on me. So I decided to come back the next day with my camera and take some pictures to capture the mood.

Bear with me. These are not professional photos, I don't have a super camera, if I'm lucky however, you'll still understand what I mean.

This is the side entry to the cemetery. If you have a closer look, you see the church (Oberhofenkirche) through the trees.


The effect of the light shining at the pillars through the snow on the ground is beautiful and a little mysterious, don't you think?


Just a few steps and you'll see the Oberhofenkirche in its beauty. Maybe I'm biased because this church was an important part of my childhood and teenagehood. Although I am not active in church anymore, I still get that special feeling when coming by here.


Doesn't it look peaceful? One look to the left ...


... one look to the right where the snow is glowing softly in the warm light of one of the lamps scattered throughout the cemetry.


I wish I could have taken a picture of one of my favorite tombs, but it was really too dark for that. So I left again through the other side entry, back into the "ordinary" world.

A walk through the cemetery

The "Old Cemetery" in Goeppingen is one of my favorite places. It's mostly very peaceful and lots of childhood and teenage memories are connected with it.
Wanna stroll along?

Let's start with the scary part, the WW I memorial for the victims of the war. When I was a child (I'm not ashamed to say it was the 60s then), people used to put their children or in my case grandchildren up there and take pictures. It could just as well have been a statue of a horse or a goddess, but it was the only statue around. I hated it. When looking up, seeing the clouds move, I always had the feeling those big guys were moving, too. Even worse, falling. On top of me. Call me crazy, but they still give me that feeling today although it got a little better since they planted that bush in front of them.


This is a part of the cemetery. It was used until the 20s. In 1902 a new cemetery with more space was built on the town borders.
There are chestnut trees scattered over the old cemetery and just like we did as children, kids still collect chestnuts here in the fall. It's hard to resist the shiny brown beauties. Each year I pick up the first chestnut I see and put it in the pocket of my jacket where I carry it until the next year.


Here is my favorite grave. It has been ever since I was a child. I always said I wanted one like that. I have been drawn to books all my life, I guess.


Now to the "Oberhofenkirche", the church where I was baptized and confirmed. It's the oldest building in Goeppingen. Initially the church was built outside the city walls, started in 1436, finished in 1490. It's now in the middle of the town.


Not always used as a church, it was renovated end of the 19th century and opened again as a sacral building in 1902.


I love the gargoyles (just showing one here) and the faces above the doors (there are more on the side walls).


I wish I could show you the windows from inside with the light falling through the colored glass. There used to be only one stained glass window, but they then added the two on the side.
I have a confession to make. As a teenager I often counted the little squares to keep myself awake if a sermon was too long .....