Schaffhausen's "oriel windows" - a unique mark on the thousand-year-old town.

Seeing the scenery is not as good as hearing about it. When traveling, I like to listen to stories, like to listen to the history related to the destination, and like to listen to interesting anecdotes about the tourist destination. Having just completed my check-in for the world’s three largest waterfalls at the beginning of the year, I was a little disdainful to see that the Rhine Falls was also included in this itinerary. However, this waterfall, which is known as "the largest waterfall in Europe", is quite a sight to behold❸❼, especially when tourists ride on red boats and fight against the water mist and the rushing river, which is quite amazing❽. Then we came to the northernmost corner of Switzerland, the "joint" of the Rhine River where Germany and Switzerland meet: Schaffhausen. This quiet town in Switzerland is the border port between Switzerland and Germany. It is a thousand-year-old town that originated from the Rhine Falls. The place name "Schaffhausen" comes from German and means "home on the ship". The 1,400-kilometer-long Rhine River is impassable every time it reaches the Rhine Falls due to rapids, and shippers often need to find a place to unload and store goods, so a small town 4 kilometers upstream came into being. The symbol of the town, the Munot Castle❹, can be seen from a few kilometers away. Climbing up the battlements with continuous steps built in the 16th century, you can enjoy the vast beauty from a unique perspective. Looking down the vine-covered slope: there is a river area between the well-preserved medieval towns, where there are beautiful murals and carefully decorated houses❿⓫, which together with the special light in the castle❻❾ form a unique and charming scenery. There were no vehicles when we entered the town. We only saw tourists looking at the colorful exterior walls of the houses on the street. I didn't understand what it was, so the tour guide told me that this was the cultural heritage of the town. If you look closely, you will see that the buildings here are not tall. Almost every decent building has a balcony with windows on the second floor. They vary in height, width, and color, and no two are the same. These bay windows are more like later additions to the building than part of it. Because the design style of the windowsill will be different from that of the exterior wall, the windowsills are mostly made of wood and the materials are also different. Some of the windowsills are too big for the buildings and look a bit messy, but most of them are in elegant taste and are exquisite. The tour guide pointed out at Plaza Franvaco that this is called a "bay window"❶❷. After asking about the two words "凸" and "肚", I couldn't help but sigh "What a great image!" "These oriel windows were built after the 17th century by many merchants who made a fortune by transporting goods through the 'Rhine Falls' to show off their wealth. Yours is bigger, mine is bigger; yours is more beautiful, mine is more beautiful; yours is more luxurious, mine is more luxurious; yours is more prominent and suspended in the air, mine is thicker and more prominent than yours. Finally, they simply made some exquisite decorations and hung them outside the wall. As a result, the town was actually inaccessible. Some merchants even carved their own goods on the outer platform of the oriel windows. From the carvings of various fruit shapes on the convex platform, it can be seen that this family used to be in the fruit business; and merchants who traded with Asia and Africa carved lions on the oriel windows...⓬⓭⓮⓯⓰⓱⓲⓳" I seemed to have listened to a storytelling of "mutual comparison" in modern European history "The Story of the Rich". It is imagined that the boasting, rivalry and jealousy would have led to scenes such as sword duels. However, these things and events have become as famous as treasures and will be passed down through the ages. There are still 170 oriel windows called "Elgar" in the old town, as well as several "frescoes" painted on the exterior walls of buildings⓴, such as the huge and extremely detailed painting on the wall of the "Knight's House"❺. Traveling allows us to glimpse the vastness of the world and the colorful life in an intuitive way. And "a man who has spent his life doing nothing in a small corner of the earth cannot look upon all things with a broad, sound, and loving eye." ——Mark Twain, "An Idiot Abroad"