Tuesday, May 10, 2011

The Fields of Oberzerf

Oberzerf is the birthplace of my great-great grandmother, today a village not much bigger than it was at the end of 1827 when she was born there.  It is about 8 miles from the city of Saarburg and 5 and one half miles from Irsch, the village of the man she would marry.  Thick forest land lies to the east and south, mostly out of my camera range as we drove along the highway.  Coming into town, there is a flowing stream and a small church, almost a chapel, at the top of a little hill.  The church built in the 1950s, the paved highway, and the automobiles parked here and there - these are a minor distraction from the setting of a village that is more than 1,000 years old.

Thickets still separate the tillable land.

The fields at the end of the harvest time

Catching a glimpse of the forest

The water of the Grossbach stream once powered the village mill

The main road to the small Catholic church

A remodeled barn house on the Hauptstrasse dates from 1848

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