So let's wizz across the sea to Germany. After spending hours in a massive old nursing home we decided to walk the woods back in search of an old Chapel ide heard about that was used for the residents of the home.. After about 20 mins wandering through the woods, there she was.
The door was ajar so nice and easy after a long day of climbing and shuvving myself through very small spaces 😁 The Chapel consisted of one big room with a huge cross painted in gold on the far wall, a small alter underneath with a velvet worn cover draped over it.. embroidered crosses sat on it moth eaten and faded..
What was once a little cherub was now headless and had been placed on the wall.. the lights in here were so funky, ide say the was once neat little rows of wooden chairs ready for a small congregation..
I like to have a look around the outside and take a few externals before I leave a place.. I definitely wasn't expecting to see what I did 😳. Concrete stairs with a metal tray on descended into the basement, ide seen this only a few times before but never under a Chapel. Being an undertaker mortuarys don't usually do alot for me being as I'm in one most of the day, but as this was a german one I was really excited to get down there!
I was really stunned when I walked into what was once a mortuary, A fridge (tcu) still Insitu but definitely seen better days loomed against the one wall.. a small sink with a crusty old bar of soap still on the wall where the mortician scrubbed his hands.. an old rusty speckled mirror and towel..
The tiles that decorated the rooms where a sort of burnt orange colour with a bright blue border, a big contrast to the white ones nowadays and it looked really cool, less clinical, more homely, in a very odd way only an undertaker would understand 😁
The was no postmortem slab, in its place was a mouldy stretcher that had very obviously been put there by another explorer for a better photograph with 2 small chairs to frame the photo.
I found out after a bit of research that the Chapel was a really lively place hosting all sorts of services for the nursing home and local villagers, The mortuary was used also by the nursing home and the nearby small hospital as an overflow. The body would be placed on the metal tray and a handle turned lowering it gently to the room below. Like many small chapels they close and become redundant due to lack of funds and in this case the closure of the nursing home that housed over 700 people in its day.
