Trinkhalle Photo | TrekEarth

Photographer’s Note

This is the Trinkhalle [the Pump Room] in Baden-Baden, built for mineral cures by Friedrich Hübsch in 1839-42. It's built around the Friedrichsquelle [Friedrich's well] and the healing water is served inside the building.

The hallway is 90m (295ft) long and lined with 16 Corinthian pillars and the inner wall is decorated with 14 frescoes inspired by Götzenberger’s tales from Baden-Baden. They tell stories about the city's history and refer to several nearby attractions, as Yburg, Castle Hohenbaden and Fort Windeck.

In the days of Kaiser Wilhelm I, the nobilities and upper class were frequent guests in Baden-Baden and this was the place to 'mingle', drink the water and enjoy the amusing tales. The Emperor himself and his wife Augusta came here almost every year for four decades.

Today the building contains a tourist information, a ticket agency, a souvenir shop and a reader’s café with domestic and international press. For €0,50 you can buy a plastic mug, so you're able to drink from the healing well.

Said to be able to cure almost every ailment, I didn't dare not drink!

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Post process: Transformed for distortion, cropped, adjusted brightness -5 and contrast +15, increased saturation +15, ran NeatImage 20%, resized for TE, sharpened and faded to 60%, framed and saved for Web.

robiuk, orme, Jazator, nwoehnl, pamastro, Riz has marked this note useful

Critiques | Translate

robiuk (10763) 2004-10-03 18:49

Excellent work, Kaj.
The colours and light are magnificant! You really mastered the perspective and again presented us with a divine piece of architecture!
Thank you!

orme (6746) 2004-10-03 20:49

An excellent shot, Kaj, of a magnificent place. The architecture is stunning. I like the way you have included the people in the shot, because it really gives us a sense of scale. The ceilings seem so high and the corridor so narrow. Good perspective and well framed - with the columns on the left. Great work.

Ebbe (9571) 2004-10-04 14:00

A lovely perspective given by good POV and crop. Nice warm colors. The humans are good to have for scale and human presence. A good one Kaj!

nwoehnl (118) 2004-10-04 14:38

I knew from the thumbnail it was Baden-Baden, Kaj. Great perspective of course, the diagonals leading towards the back are strong and the verticals couldn't be any more, ehm, vertical. We get a good view of the ornate architectural details, and the light falling in from the left is nicely rendered. The people are doing a good job providing scale. Well done!

maphoto (8076) 2004-10-04 17:51

Great architecture and details, the row of benches on the right, the people giving an idea of the dimmension, all very well presented, not an easy on to have everything clear and sharp and I think that you have succeded, well seen & done.

pamastro (7213) 2004-10-04 21:07

This is really well handled, Kaj. The lighting throughout is great. It never gets too strong or weak and changes very smoothly. The textures and details are impressive throughout, also. The people add a scale to this shot and contrasts with the architecture. Much more tourist like today rather than the elite in their top hats as I imagine it would have been like in the past. Very nicely managed. Really impressive hall and shot.

Riz (0) 2004-10-08 20:43

been busy here on TE I missed some of your last posts this is a great shot I think the composition is great personally I think this shot would look nice in BW and the angle is superb well done Kaj