When your eyes follow the bricks
I live in a town dating back to the late Middle Ages. I have been familiar with most of the publicly accessible buildings for years. Every stone seems to point towards the sky. Everything reaches towards the light. The bricks form pointed arches, allowing light to enter the sacred and secular buildings. Everything is designed to impress and demonstrate wealth. In my everyday life, I am surrounded by Lübeck’s brick Gothic architecture. And here, everything points to the infinity above us.
Every few years, my job as a children’s book author and reading promoter takes me to Bologna. This city is three times as old as Lübeck. Here, thousands of Romanesque arches in the arcades lead to the horizon. Everything begins at ground level, surrounds me and ends back at ground level. But the many arches in a row draw my gaze to the infinity of the horizon.
