Gruenberg...

This is the Lutheran Church at Gruenberg in the Barossa Valley in South Australia (-34 28 38 long 139 06 03). The church is of some significance to me because my ancestors helped build this church, worshipped here, and are buried in the graveyard. We are talking about my great great great grandfather and mother. My great great grandmother came from Guenberg in Silesia. My great great grandfather, however, is buried at Tiparra, a few miles from where I am writing this in Ardrossan on Yorke Peninsula. What I think is unusual about this church is its location. This is not the middle of a village or town, but a crossroads, dirt roads at that.

The church is still used, its grounds a beautifully maintained, and the place is surrounded by exotic trees. A row of cypress, some palms, and a few pines. The cemetery is in the native bush at the back. This is the front gate, rather ostentatious with its ironwork sign.
The rear of the church is well kept, pleasing in proportions, tidy in finish. It is rather liberal, very simple in design. The people who worshipped here, my ancestors too, were rather strict and humorless evangelical Lutherans, who fled their home country because Friedrich Wilhelm III, King of Prussia, wanted the evangelicals to join in the State sponsored church. They emigrated rather than lower their standards.
The old manse: the beauty of this building is in its simplicity.
Here is the inspiration for this post, the view from the road. Again the simplicity of the view is beautiful. The Barossa is the first great wine growing region in Australia, a practice introduced by the Lutherans in the early 1840s when they settled the Valley. Vast areas of the region are in the grip of the grape.
And here is Gottlieb’s original house. Now up for sale, it is 3br on 15 acres, 1 hour to town. Bargain if you have a lazy 250K. By the way, Gruenberg is now Zielona Gora, in western Poland, and coincidentally, the previous post was about a family who also came from there, who lived in a tree. Another odd coincidence is that when living in Sweden we were friends with a woman who came from Zielona Gora.