This medieval town in Europe reserves the most magical and romantic Christmas to escape.

Walking while the scent of cinnamon mingles with the arctic cold has something special about Christmas. Big fir trees crowned with lights, snow, or like the markets of European capitals filled with Christmas decorations, carved wooden toys and handicrafts.

many places like Edinburgh, London or Budapest show us one of their best faces this time of year, but there are also lesser-known places that hide big surprises. What Gengenbach, a small town in the German Black Forest with the world’s largest Christmas calendar between its streets.

The hidden gem of the Black Forest, Gengenbach

Gengenbach panorama

Some may think that Gengenbach is the most beautiful town in the Black Forest.and if you look at the photos, you’re more likely to agree with this statement. In Gengenbach, a typical German city, the colors, the shape of the streets, the wooden skeleton of their houses… Everything is like something out of a children’s fairy tale. Even the cinema has succumbed to the beauty of its streets, which have been the scene of films such as Charlie’s Chocolate Factory of the Tim Burton.

gengenbach streets

Gengenbach Town Hall

Kinzigtor’s arch or Upper Gate Tower, Market Square, Stadtkirche Sankt Marien -a beautiful baroque church with an incredibly colorful interior-, the medieval Obertor tower or the streets of Engelgasse and Höllengasse (also known as Angel streets and Hell) flowers and littered with ivy are brushstrokes of what Gengenbach has hidden in its historic centre.

Apart from that, wide valleys, gentle hills, mountains and rivers. The vast nature of the Black Forest filtered in an ideal environment. The most beautiful viewpoint of the city allows us to see the surrounding vineyards and is located in the Jakobs Kapelle chapel. An extra tip: if the weather is clear we can even see the bell tower of Strasbourg cathedral.

Chapel of Jakobs Kapelle

Gengenbach’s Christmas

Precious Gengenbach old townProtected as a National Monument since 1955, it looks like the setting of a story. We can dream of walking the streets of wooden houses with the sun that warms our skin any time of the year, even on the coldest days, but if there ever was a time when this small town in Germany got better, it was. Christmas.

Since the last 25 years the world’s largest advent calendar looks like magic in Gengenbach’s beautiful neoclassical town hall. The building, which has a history of more than 200 years, transforms into a gigantic Christmas calendar with its 24-lighted windows decorated with works by well-known artists such as Otmar Alt, Tomi Ungerer, Jan Peter Tripp or Andy. Warhol. .

This year images Little Prince Fill in the windows that will open one by one from November 30 until Christmas Eve. It joins 12 illustrations by Antoine de Saint-Exupéry and 12 drawings by artist Valeria Docampo, which seem to come alive at this time of year.

The ritual of opening the windows begins every night at six in the afternoon, when it is already dark. It begins with music and a fairy tale about the image of that day is played on the stage in front of the Advent Calendar and ends with the opening of the window.

Located next to the town hall, the Gengenbach Advent market has dozens of stalls designed to enjoy long walks. Also this year, Museum Haus Löwenberg has an exhibition of astrophotographs by Bernd Pröschold, as well as paintings and stories about the moon. by Quint Buchholz, Otmar Alt, NASA or Květa Pacovská who contributed to the theme Little Prince adorning the windows of the town hall.

To reach this fairytale town, we can fly from Madrid to Strasbourg (round flight prices for the long weekend in December) 210 euros) and rent a car from the airport, because Gengenbach is less than 40 minutes’ drive away. Four-day rental price 139 euros.

We offer you two options for staying, Weinhotel Pfeffer & Salz 339 euros three nights in a double room or at the Schwarzwaldhotel Gengenbach, a ten-minute walk from the town hall and 525 euros For three nights across the December bridge.

Note: Some of the links in this article are linked and may benefit Trendencias.

Photos | mortgage, gengenbach

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