The Baumann House – Town House and Heritage Building @museum.de

In the late 16th century, the wealthy butcher and livestock merchant Hans Ziegler was planning to build a handsome stone house. But the quarries were working flat out, so he had to build a timber-frame house instead. According to local legend, anyway.

Even in the 19th century, this elegant town house, with all the riches of stone architecture translated into timber-framing, was regarded as a heritage building.

The opulent timber-frame house in the Renaissance style displays all the features great workmanship can achieve: two projecting floors with bay windows, plus three richly decorated floors with gables. All this is elaborately adorned with spiral ornamentation, volutes and rosettes, as well as multiple chimeras in a wide range of designs and variations.

It’s no coincidence that the Baumann House is now seen as one of the three most beautiful upper middle-class town houses between the Black Forest and the Odenwald. In 2010, that was the main reason why the German post office issued a stamp showing this magnificent timber-framed house.