Schiltach: Fairytale Town in the Black Forest

I don' t like serving tourists' clichés... but this little place is very likely to meet a couple of them. Many visitors have dream pictures in their head that include a small town with half-timbered houses and cobblestone alleys, surrounded by dense forests, perhaps a creek down in the valley, mill wheels and gardens with flowers, and all this without tour buses and hordes of other tourists. Well, try Schiltach.

The Kinzig valley is like a chain of pearls with many smallish places and towns, conveniently lined up along a local train line so you don't even need a car to explore it. While Gengenbach and Vogtsbauernhof museum village are widely known, there are many other hidden gems along it. Schiltach is certainly one that's worth a stop.

Schiltach's market "square" is actually a triangle. and it is anything but even. Farmers markets and festivals take place here. I wonder how they set up the stalls. They must have constructions with all legs of different length. Only around the foutain they have a small flat area.

The square is a design of the late 16th century after the town suffered a big fire, and many houses were rebuilt after another fire of 1791, so allow me to clean up with another popular cliché: townscapes like this one are not medieval. These houses date from the early modern era. Cobblestone is not a medieval feature either: in the middle ages most cities had unpaved streets covered in mud and muck.

The view along Schiltach river

The town is located by the confluence of the Kinzig and the smaller Schiltach river - the very same flow of water that is the star of Bach-na-Fahre in Schramberg's carnival.

The view from the main bridge along Schiltach river is iconic. Both river banks have promenade walks, benches to rest, and a nice looking cafe which was unfortunately closed as this was a Tuesday.

The old town, however, was not built by the river due to the frequent floodings, but a few metres higher on the hillside. What we see here is impressive enough but these are the rear sides of the houses along Hauptstraße, the old town's main street. The front facades are even more beautiful. Locals lovingly call the old town the "Städtle". Only the tanners and other dirty, smelly businesses had their separate quarter down on the river bank.

The main road for cars runs down on the river bank, though. In the axis of the street we spot the steeple of the protestant church.

No trip with me without "churching"... The protestant church was built around 1840 and is a very typical example of the style in Baden under the lead of Landbaumeister Heinrich Hübsch, who was in charge of all public projects in the Grandduchy of Baden.

Actually, though, this was the second part of Russell's birthday trip, following our visit to Vogtsbauernhof described in the previous entry.
A birthday calls for a birthday cake. We finally found a nice cafe in the main square which was open. Unfortunately someone else ordered the last piece of Apfelstrudel right under our nose. Hrmpf!
But they had a fine selection of tarts and cakes and we opted for a Käse-Sahne-Torte with strawberries and enjoyed the view of the market square.

The town hall's facade sports a mural with some events from the town's history, and a tribute to the working classes in the gable - dated 1942! A pure example of Nazi art is preserved here. Remarkable. The inscription is quite sensible, though. It tells us to equally honour work of any kind, no matter what it is.

A beautiful street leads up from the market square. Russell was not so happy when I insisted on climbing up. He thought I was crazy.

The base of the town's economy, though, were the treasures of the forests and the river: Wood, in particular timbers for construction, were needed in the cities on the Rhine and paid well. Wood Trade and rafting made the town wealthy. Tree trunks were tied together into long rafts and floated downstream to the Rhine. Then they were taken apart and sold, and the rafters returned home on foot.

A typical raft is on display by the river next to a historical sawmill which is now a museum (Schüttesägenmuseum). I have to admit, though, that we had neither time nor strength left to visit museums. So this will have to wait for next time, as well as the town's historical museum (Museum am Markt) which also looks interesting. I am sure that there is going to be a next visit rather soon!