Bonn
— the city that kept Germany in two minds.
Not only on a wall.
“A river city south of Cologne, on a bend of the Rhine where the land begins to lift toward the Siebengebirge hills. Bonn was the capital of West Germany from 1949 until reunification, then handed the work back to Berlin. The pace stayed gentle. Beethoven was born here in 1770. The pink cherry trees in the old town bloom for about ten days each April.
Bonn, on ceramic.
Each tile is finished by hand in our Knoxville studio. Artwork is slowly infused into the ceramic surface under high heat and pressure, and rests beneath a thin glossy finish. The colour lives in the surface, not on top of it.
Pick any four 4-inch tiles — National Parks you've been to, a Smokies set, the four seasons of one place. $ for a set of , cork-backed, ready to live on the table.
The place, in three passes.
Bonn sits on the west bank of the Rhine in North Rhine-Westphalia, about 25 kilometres south of Cologne. The current population is around 330,000. The city served as the provisional capital of West Germany from 1949 until German reunification, after which most federal government functions were moved to Berlin by 2000. Several ministries and the United Nations Campus remain. The Romanesque Bonn Minster, built between the 11th and 13th centuries, is the oldest of the city's churches still standing. The Siebengebirge hills rise across the river to the southeast.
Ludwig van Beethoven was born in Bonn in December 1770, in a narrow house on Bonngasse that has been a museum since 1893. The city marks his birthday and milestone anniversaries on a wide scale; the 250th in 2020 spanned an extended festival programme reshaped by the pandemic. The Beethoven-Haus runs a regular chamber concert series and holds the largest collection of Beethoven manuscripts in the world. The Beethovenfest, held each autumn, brings international orchestras to the Beethovenhalle and the city's churches.
The Heerstraße in the old city is lined with Japanese cherry trees that bloom in a tight ten-day window in mid-April, drawing crowds from across the Rhineland. The Bonn Minster, a Romanesque church begun in the 11th century, sits at the city's centre. Museum Mile along Friedrich-Ebert-Allee holds the Bundeskunsthalle, the Haus der Geschichte (which traces postwar German history), and the Kunstmuseum Bonn. Public transport is by tram and S-Bahn; the city is compact enough to walk most of the centre in an afternoon.