Tuesday, August 2, 2016

Freiburg's New Partner Cities

Last Friday, in the presence of attractive Nicaraguan ambassador Karla Luzette Beteta Mayor Salomon inaugurated the new mosaic for Freiburg's partner city Wiwili together with those of Israel's Tel Aviv and South Korea's Suwon. On this occasion, her Excellency Beteta said: This partnership is a light of hope; it is essential to lift the banner for the development of the people.

©BZ/Rita Eggstein
In the meantime, Freiburg has 12 partner or sister cities. By now, all their mosaics are laid on the pavement in front of the town hall on Rathausplatz.

©Stadt Freiburg
Here is a historical photo of Mayors Dave and Dieter looking at Madison's mosaic on the occasion of the 3rd meeting of Freiburg's partner cities celebrating the 20th anniversary of Freiburg's partnership with Madison in 2008.

Dieter Salomon and David Cieslewicz in 2008, stopping short for a photo
In the old days, mosaics were composed using Rheinkiesel (Rhine pebbles). Nowadays, other techniques are welcome.

Traditional Rheinkiesel: French Besançon was the first of Freiburg's partner cities
Israel's Tel Aviv, its name is also spelled in Hebrew.
Korea's Suwon and its historical fortification
Symbols of Wiwili: Rio Coco, local mountain Mogoton,
 a coffee bean, and Wiwili's heraldic animal, the leafcutter ant.

While I was shooting photos of the new mosaics, a guy from Freiburg's Garten- and Tiefbauamt (Garden and Engineering Office) approached and proudly started explaining to some tourists how he and his team of trainees had made the new mosaics. It took them about 1000 hours of work: The white color is marble, blue is some stone from Brazil, and green is an artificial stone.
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