Mittenwald is a small town located in the Bavarian region of Germany. Its just a short drive from the larger city of Garmisch-Partenkirchen and we did a stop over there the afternoon after our hike at Lake Barmsee.
The town is small but has a lot of character and was actually one of our favorite places in the region.
My wife can never get the name of a town right wherever we go. I know that names are challenging in other countries so she basically creates her own name for each town that we visit. She does this by taking the first portion of the word and adding it to another of her choosing. For instance, Mittenwald for the duration of our trip became "Mitten-puff."
She is often persistent about it too and eventually it becomes easier to just use her made-up name then endlessly trying to correct her. She had me using the name Mitten-puff to the point where I no longer remembered the correct name for the town and had to look it up for this post.
I'll try to use the correct name for this post though.
Mittenwald is a very old town with a lot of history. It was once a way station along an important Roman trade route that connected Northern Italy and Southern Germany.
Much later, in the 17th century, the town became one of the most prestigious violin producing locations in all of Europe, at one point having over 100 independent violin manufacturers working out of their homes.
Bavaria in general has some of the best beer in the country in my opinion and Mittenwald didn't disappoint in that department either.
But aside from good beer and a lot of history, the thing that stood out the most and what we liked best about the town was it's tradition and customs.
Lüftlmalerei
Like many towns in Bavaria, Mittenwald has a wide assortment of traditional frescos, known as Lüftlmalerei. These are painted on the exteriors of many of its buildings and some date as far back as the 18th century.
Though I did read up on the history of the murals, I actually found it to be very convoluted and too challenging to write about fully in this post. This was especially the case in terms of how the tradition of the Lüftlmalerei all started. I will share a few points of what I learned though.
From what I gathered, the tradition of the paintings dates back to the Roman trade route, when citizens of the area took on the Roman tradition of painting frescos on the outsides of their establishments. This may have been to attract certain clientele or to just be more appealing to travelers coming up from Italy.
Homes and buildings back then were often quite plain as well. They had plaster exterior walls that were painted white. The smooth white exteriors probably made for an excellent canvas for painting
murals.
There may also have been a sort of fashion element to the tradition as well, in that the tradition may have simply caught on trend. Naturally when one neighbor decided to paint his house it may have made all the others in the area look very plain prompting others to commission their own works.
Many of the Lüftlmalerei feature scenes from the church or the outdoors and I believe that most are painted in the traditional Baroque style. You can recognize this by the distinctive 3D effect of the images, which I believe is one of the key features of Baroque style artwork.
We found the Lüftlmalerei to be particularly beautiful in Mittenwald.
Werdenfels
The other custom that we loved seeing in town was the traditional attire worn by many of the residents. I believe these are called "Werdenfels," which are a church costume typically reserved for special occasions.
When we were there, dozens (if not hundreds) of people were wearing them. It was unexpected but we later read that Mittenwald is one of the few towns that really takes their traditional costumes seriously. They not only sell them in many of the shops in town but they also wear them on every holiday and festival. They often even wear them on regular days (typically Sundays) as a way to draw in more tourists.
We found the men's costumes to be much more elaborate then the woman's, though the woman's costume were very nice as well. The mens consisted of leather shorts called "lederhosen," which they wore with fancy wool jackets, traditional hats with an elaborate plume of feathers in them and special socks that only covered the calves. Supposedly the socks are unique to each town in Bavaria.
Some people were walking around town in their Werdenfels but most were in a beer tent, drinking large double pints of beer, playing music and singing traditional songs in German. It was very cool to witness.
If you ever visit Mittenwald I would recommend trying to be there on a holiday or a Sunday to increase your chances of seeing the outfits and hearing the songs and merriment. It was our favorite part of Bavaria and it's definitely worth the experience.
That was nice to see so many men in lederhosens. What an experience! To enjoy the place with traditional music in the open air and with large pints of beer. I will keep Mitten-puff err, Mittenwald in mind one day 😁
If you can go on a holiday or Sunday that is a good time to see the outfits :)
Ah, that's such a great tip,will keep that in mind
Damnit, I missed 2 of your posts!!! It's gonna fuck up my APR curation rate 😁, you're my golden goose...
You lied to me, you said I quote "I am not going nowhere, therefore no post"!
Lovely post by the way!
🤣 I've definitely thought that same thing a few times.
Yeah I was getting a little anxious with not having posted in 8 days or so. I have goals man. Reputation goals and HP goals. I can't be slacking 😆
thank you for sharing with us about this little town. It is so cool to see houses with painting on them. Your third photo with mountain background is amazing
Yeah the paintings on the buildings is quite unique.
I'm glad that you liked the photos. Thanks for stopping by.
Wow, really good photo as well boss
Thanks!
Wow what a cool town. So funny about your wife changing the name. Glad you found the correct name for this charming town. That is so interesting that the people wear the traditional clothes so often too.
Yeah the traditional attire was very cool and unique.
Wow, this town left me speechless, what more if I visit it. I wish I can visit it in the near future.
I hope you get to at some point!
:)
I hope so too (^_^)
Very interesting and beautiful place! it's bit reminds me of Austria. Thank you for sharing!
It's very close to the Astrian border so that makes. I haven't been to Austria myself so I don't know how similar they actually are. But being so close I'm sure that they are.
Some of the houses, and especially the Churches are very similar with those in Salzburg. I often hear a joke from Germans people, that "Austria is a beautiful place in Germany" 😅
Yeah, they seem like they would be very similar. Some parts of Switzerland are like that as well - the Northern parts are very similar to parts of Germany. Same language, similar food, and similar architecture. There are parts of France - the Alsace region that also has a German feel about it. Countries influence each other, especially near the borders.
I love the paintings on the wall, make the town very unique, such a lovely little town! 😀
Yes I agree, the paintings are very unique. They give the town a lot of character and charm.
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