Oberammergau, Bavaria, Germany Home of The Passion Play

You’d think that nothing could top the Neuschwanstein Castle or Wieskirche Church of The Scourged Savior (The Church of The Meadow) from the previous two days of our trip in Bavaria. But, seriously, the beauty just kept on coming. 

It’s not that the beauty was any better, it is was just a different kind of beauty in each place.  For our third day in Bavaria, my husband and I strolled lazily about the small, unique, quaint and darling Alpine village of Oberammergau, Bavaria, Germany and the home of the Passion Play of Christ that occurs every ten years.

This little town just takes your breath away.  Every corner that you turn while walking through town reveals more buildings and homes with incredibly painted murals!  Sometimes the murals depict a fairytale such as “Hansel and Gretl” or “Little Red Riding Hood”, or some of them visually indicate something about the life in medieval times or a family’s history . . . but most of them depict something related to the Christian faith.  The people of this community are very spiritual and faithful people to the Catholic Church and scenes of devotion are painted and sculpted everywhere.  Even if one is not Catholic, the village is still an inspiration to see how important faith is to the people who live in Oberammergau.

The first building (above) that I’m showing you is someone’s actual home.  Wrapped around the front of the house and it’s two sides are painted illustrations of the fairytale “Little Red Riding Hood”.

You’ll love this!  Here are some closer shots:

 

 

 

 

When I took the photos of this home, I was in the shade while the sun was rising from the back of the house.  So just a note that there is a slight ‘blue-ish’ shadow tint to any photos that were taken in the shadows of the towering Alps.

Very close to this house and across the street (in the full sunshine), is a home for children, known as the “Hansel and Gretl” house that is painted entirely of scenes from the fairytale!  You can see part of this very large children’s home in the photo below:

 

 

And below is a closer shot at the mural of “Hansel and Gretl”:

 

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The sky was perfectly blue without any clouds or fog, that normally are present in winter.  Here is another example of a beautifully painted mural along the main street of town as we walked around, gawking, literally amazed at the workmanship of whomever painted these buildings.

 

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Moving closer towards the center of the town of Oberammergau, the painted murals continue on and on and on.  It was very quiet while we were there due to many tourists canceling their travel plans after the attack on Paris that took place 3 weeks earlier.  Normally at Christmastime, this town would be crawling with tourists.  Sadly, because of the lack of tourists, we literally could walk anywhere in town to take photos without any crowding.

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This mural below simply reflected scenes of everyday life in town:

 

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A closer shot of the details of this mural:

 

Below painted above a woodcarving shop, was my favorite mural of all, the crucifixion and intense color of blue was stunning!

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This mural below is a wonderful example of the famous painting technique of “trompe l’oeil” . . . a perfected manner in painting that creates a visual illusion, and used as a way to trick one’s eyes into perceiving an illusion that the painting is a three-dimensional object.

 

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More visual and textural beauty that just catches a small ‘glimpse’ of Oberammergau, Bavaria:

 

 

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Well, there’s more to share about this amazing little Bavarian town of Oberammergau!  But one can almost overdose in all of this visual stimulation, so stay tuned for a second post another style of artistic beauty found in this small town tucked away in the Bavarian Alps of Germany!

Thanks for coming along with me and for all of your comments that you’ve been leaving about this amazing trip to Germany!  If I can, I’ll help answer any questions that you might have about traveling to any of the destinations that we visited in Bavaria.

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