The Homesick Potter: Schaffhausen and the Rheinfall

Dear Friends, I am The Homesick Potter.

To suggest to two Canadians to visit the Rheinfall was a little foolhardy. Needless to say the Niagara Falls loom large in comparison. However if it was good enough for Goethe, it should satisfy two boys from Canada.

Some facts: The Rheinfall, the largest waterfall in Europe, has an impressive width of 492 feet and it makes its 82 foot drop in three dramatic leaps. As you follow the path, you have different viewpoints of the falls. At one point the water rushes underneath the platform you are standing on. This is not a good time to question engineering.

A crag, partially overgrown by bushes conjures up images of 19th-century landscape paintings.

In a letter to Schiller, Goethe writes on September 18th 1797, "Die Sonne kam hervor und verherrlichte das Schauspiel, zeigte einen Theil des Regenbogens und ließ mich das ganze Naturphänomen in seinem vollen Glanze sehen." (The sun appeared and glorified the spectacle before me, revealing part of a rainbow and allowed me to see the whole natural phenomenon in its full splendour).

Schaffhausen although small, has a beautiful city centre. The houses date back to the late Gothic, Baroque, and Rococo periods. Frescoes in pastel colours depict scenes from Babylonian and Greek legends. One of the city's jewels, Haus zum Ritter (Knight's House) was built in 1494. The original Renaissance frescoes were painted by Tobias Stimmer and praise the civil virtues. The frescoes were taken down in 1935 and are housed in the Museum zu Allerheiligen.

Haus zum Ritter

The city's other claim to fame is its copious oriel windows, which gave it its nickname Erkerstadt (city of oriel windows). It allowed the women a good view of the road without being seen themselves, and the merchants were able to demonstrate their wealth and good taste.