Schiltach, Germany: a Black Forest town of half-timbered houses, raftsmen and tanners

Where the Schiltach stream meets the Kinzig, hemmed in by steep wooded slopes, the little Black Forest town of Schiltach gathers its half-timbered houses around a sloping, triangular market square. Painted gables, a sixteenth-century town hall and twin fountains make it one of the most photographed corners of the region. A small town of around 4,000 people in the Rottweil district of Baden-Württemberg, it lies in the upper Kinzig valley, roughly 60 kilometres north-east of Freiburg and about 100 kilometres south-west of Stuttgart.

Locals call the centre the Städtle, and its houses span the fourteenth to the nineteenth centuries, protected as a historic ensemble since 1971. Murals on several facades recall the trades that once defined the town, and the streets along the water give the prettiest views of timber frames mirrored in the river.

Rafts, hides and fire

First recorded as a parish in 1275, when the dukes of Teck founded the town and a castle to guard the valley route, Schiltach earned its living from the river. Logs were lashed into rafts and floated down the Kinzig as far as Holland, while tanneries used the same water to work leather - which is why the town still calls itself the place of half-timbering, raftsmen and tanners. Three great fires in the sixteenth century destroyed much of it, and each time it was carefully rebuilt.

Living crafts and quiet trails

That heritage stays alive in several small museums, among them the Schüttesäge Museum in a restored sawmill and the Apothecary Museum, while the Trautwein workshop continues as one of the last traditional tanneries in the Black Forest. Ringed by hiking and cycling trails and served by the scenic Kinzig valley railway, Schiltach rewards a slow wander far from the crowds.