The scent of cinnamon and mulled wine wafts through the wooden facades of the little houses, making for the perfect Christmas card. But Gengenbach has another surprise in store: the world’s largest Advent calendar – see our private tours of Holland here!
Gengenbach is a charming village with a beautiful old town in the middle of the fairytale landscape of the Black Forest. “Anyone who enters the old town will think they have arrived at an open-air museum or a film set: half-timbered houses are visible as far as the eye can see; you can feel the atmosphere of a cosy little village, with an almost Mediterranean feel to its street life, combined with cosmopolitan echoes. Towers, gates, narrow streets and picturesque squares, all in perfect harmony”.
THE WORLD’S LARGEST ADVENT CALENDAR
Gengenbach itself is world famous for having the world’s largest advent calendar. It is located in the town hall, whose 24 windows prepare the residents – and the many visitors – for the arrival of Christmas.
They do so by discovering each day one of the creations that artists from all over the world prepare for the event. “The daily show begins with music, and then the stage in front of the Advent Calendar is filled with magic as children dance and act out a story related to the image that will be shown that day. At the end of the performance, the window is opened and the light shines through,” the local tourism department explains.
This 2022 the 12 touching illustrations by Antoine de Saint-Exupéry for his famous story The Little Prince will be on display again. Another twelve belong to the artist Valeria Docampo, who reinterprets the story.
This repetition is due to the devastation caused by the pandemic, which made it impossible to present the Advent calendar and its artist as the organizers would have wished for the past two years.
24 MAGICAL DAYS
“We started the advent calendar more than 20 years ago. It all started when the local community (including traders, associations, etc.) suggested to create a change in the winter routine in Gengenbach. Compared to the summer, the village was always empty in winter. That’s when the idea of creating a big Christmas calendar came up, and luckily our town hall has exactly the right number of 24 windows,” explain the Gengenbach authorities.
“From the day the calendar was born until now, a lot has changed around winter and especially Advent in Gengenbach. Nobody would have dreamed more than 20 years ago that Gengenbach would one day be in the Guinness Book of Records with the largest Advent calendar in the world, but it has.
Today, the days leading up to Christmas are absolutely magical in the town, which is completely lit up for the occasion – although the calendar will be on display until 6 January. There is also a cosy Christmas market, located in the town hall square, where there is daily music from local and regional bands. “It’s magical. It sparkles and you can smell the aroma of Christmas, the cinnamon, the almonds, the mulled wine in the air. …. The spirit of the season is in the air, and it brings joy and warmth to the heart.
Gengenbach also offers a rich cultural and festive programme with a variety of museums, delicious wines and irresistible gastronomy. “Situated in the real Black Forest valley, Gengenbach offers excellent traditional farms and a unique landscape. It is the perfect place for active living, deep breathing and relaxation,” concludes the ideal Christmas village.
GENGENBACH AND ITS HISTORY
More than a village, however, it is a small town so beautiful that it has been the setting for scenes in films such as Charlie and the Chocolate Factory. Gengenbach has all the charm and beauty of a typical southern German town, and if you happen to visit the neighbouring French region of Alsace beforehand, you are sure to find common features. Gengenbach is a picture-perfect town of half-timbered houses, fountains, and lots of flowers in summer, as well as picturesque churches and historic buildings that form a postcard-perfect picture postcard.
Gengenbach is located in southern Germany, in the district of Ortenau, in the state of Baden-Württemberg. But for more details, I will give for example the distances to nearby famous towns in France, Germany or Switzerland, as this is a border region. For example, from Freiburg to Breisgau, one of the main cities in the southern Black Forest, it is 75 km (about 50 minutes). And from Baden-Baden (the main tourist town in the Black Forest) it is about 50 km (40 minutes). From Strasbourg in France it is only 37 kilometres (and 37 minutes), and from Basel in Switzerland it is about 132 kilometres (one and a half hours). Stuttgart is the closest major city to Germany and is about 150 kilometres away.
