Living in an 800-year-old tower for the past 28 years, Blanca Knodel has had the most interesting view of the imperial town of Bad Wimpfen in southern Germany.
Though the duties of the tower keeper have changed drastically since medieval times, Ms. Knodel, who’s in her 70s, has kept plenty busy as she lives out her dream in the Blue Tower, or “Blauer Turm,” that watches over her native town and the river Neckar.
So, how did she get this unique job and a home 196 feet above her beloved town?
“My grandmother’s sister even used to live here in the tower keeper’s apartment. When my predecessor became ill, I covered for him. Eventually, I took over with my three children.”
In exchange for the work she does as a tower keeper, the city allows her to live there rent-free.
The town actually has two landmark towers, both named for the color of their roofs. The second tower, which is within walking distance from the Blue Tower, is called the Red Tower, or “Roter Turm.”
Making the Tower Her Home
Ms. Knodel’s job as the keeper of the tower has required her and her children to get creative with how they spend their time.
Ms. Knodel said that when the bell rang alerting them to arriving tourists, “Then someone whose mouth was empty got up and sold a paper [to the tourists] and came back and continued eating. That’s how we often spent our lunches.”
Raising three children in an 800-year-old tower required remodeling and a whole lot of creativity–something Ms. Knodel had no shortage of.
“Before we moved in in ‘96,” she says in the video, “it was all one big room with white walls.”
The only separated space in the house was the bathroom. With a friend, she remodeled the small home to give her and her children space and privacy. The home is now separated into a living room area, a kitchen, a bathroom, a bedroom, and an office.
While her children were growing up, her son had the bedroom, and, for her daughters, a mini attic was built above the living room area where their beds and some games were stored. They installed shutters to give them some privacy at night.
Ms. Knodel used to sleep on a bed that would pull out of her sofa, but with her children all moved out, she now sleeps in the bedroom where her son used to sleep.
“I am very happy and proud that it turned out so beautifully,” she said of the remodeling.
The tower home is filled with reminders of Ms. Knodel’s German heritage as well as pictures of her family. Speaking of the 200-year-old piano in her home, she said the men who took it up the 134 steps to her living room had a significant challenge.
To play a joke on them, when they reached the top with the piano, she said, “Something terrible has happened. That’s the wrong piano.”
They looked at her in dismay. “Their faces should have been photographed,” she said. “They didn’t think I was funny at all.”
Her home is also filled with grandfather clocks, each ringing with a different tone at a certain hour; she can always tell which hour it is by which clock she can hear ringing.
Being a Tower Keeper
In the Middle Ages, a tower keeper didn’t get to have quite as much fun as Ms. Knodel does. During those more dangerous times, Ms. Knodel says, their job was to “watch out for enemies and fires and to raise the alarm; to toll the hours.”These days, her job as tower keeper is to sell tickets and give information on the grand tower she calls home.
All in all, she feels that, apart from having to carry groceries up 134 steps, she has it pretty good.
“I’m so high above everything else; it is so quiet and peaceful,“ she told Ann Marie Ackermann. ”I have a tremendous view. And all my visitors are friendly. People climb the 134 steps to my apartment only if they really want to see me.”
