Vicarage
The first settlers in Rutenberg were monks who lived in burrows. In the twelfth century they built a small fieldstone church, which grew over the centuries and gained a brick bell tower. Behind it, the priest built his vicarage and a stable around 1870 – simple, robust brick buildings with modest decorations and a cellar.
Later, the farm was expanded with a sheep pen and the large barn into a three-sided yard, as are often found in the region. 180 ha of fields and forest also belonged to the farm. The priest must have been a relatively well-off farmer. The vicarage farm was the village centre. It featured, for example, a well, known for its good water. Children were sent here to fetch it. For a long time the post office was also here. Today, the old pigeonholes serve as a kitchen cupboard. In the 1970s one of the stables was turned into a retreat – a church rest home. During the summer, young Protestants from the GDR would celebrate alongside their “brothers and sisters” from neighbouring socialist countries. They were required to help with the conversion and renovation of the buildings.
This didn’t always have a positive influence on the buildings’ structure. The inexperienced builders had to work with the few materials they had at their disposal. Concrete lintels and cheap plastic windows were built into the old archways. Interstices were stopped up with a jumbled mixture of bricks. The building couldn’t be renovated without a huge amount of effort. We first had to send it into a deep sleep.
