Walk around the Village of Rothenfluh in Canton Baselland

(This post made on December 10, 2024) 

Friday March 8, 2024 -- While staying with friends due to renovations on our apartment, I went for a short walk with my host on this nice March day, just checking out the village where we were staying. The house owned by our friends is at least 350 years old, one of the first houses built in this village. Since they have owned the house, they have totally renovated it, as it had only wooden beams to separate the stories inside. It was lovely to stay with them with only one drawback: The village church was right next door, and for some reason, they felt it necessary to do a long ringing of the bells at 5:30 in the morning!

The village center of Rothenfluh in Canton Baselland has a unique circular design and is under Cultural Heritage Protection. 

View of the Rothenfluh church from my friend's house! It's right next door. 

We started our walk at about 1 p.m. on the narrow path directly above their garden and headed up the hill on the east side of the village. 

Even here the palm trees do well!

Looking over the rooftops of the village of Rothenfluh

The bluffs above the village are called the "Roti Flue", from where the village gets its name. 

Taking the dog for a walk on this beautiful March day

There are always some kites to admire.

Another look at the Roti Flue bluffs

Heading down into the village now

Heading down through the village. In this northwest part of the country, a lot of the houses used to be combination residence and stables, that is why so many of the buildings have arched doorways. 

A quick look into the church...

And a walk around the church grounds. 

View of the house from the church grounds, that's how close the house is to the church! Our bedroom was on the upper floor beneath the roof. 

Heading down to the main part of the village, with a view back up to the church building

Another house with large arched doors, formerly stable doors but converted to main entryways.

Row of attached houses along a side street

Interesting build

Old wood construction

Pretty village of Rothenfluh

Along the main street is a row of attached houses, all with the original large arched stable doors. 

Short walk through the village of Rothenfluh. The unique circular design of the older part gives the village special standing and was taken up in the Federal inventory of protected cultural sites. 

This was the view from our bedroom window

View over the rooftops of the village of Rothenfluh from our guest bedroom

The front of this very old house, over 300 years old, totally renovated. The right side was the original house (with the stable doors) and later the left side was added on as a second residence for extended family, with separate entrance and a very thick wall between. This was to save on heating, as the shared walls prevented some heat loss in cold weather. 

North side of the house has an added terrace, which provides shade in summer

Aerial photograph of our friends' property

An old map of the village of Rothenfluh shows how the village would have looked in 1678! our friends' house was part of the original village, but as a single house at that time, before the "second house" was built on to it. 

Originally, the two residences were separated by this thick wall! After doing renovations, the wall was broken to open up both residences into a single one, so you can walk from one side to the other. This shows how thick the walls were in these old buildings! As this was originally two houses, there are also two kitchens.

Aerial view of the village of Rothenfluh as seen on Google Satellite Maps.