When you talk about the meaning and purpose of the nativity scene, you think of Christmas in the year 1223, when St. Francis of Assisi has held in the forest of Greccio/Italy his famous Christmas celebration. It was probably the beginning of the tradition of building up and showing nativity scenes.

From the 16th century the scene then found a place in all churches, monasteries, places of the towns and in the houses of Franconian families. At that time most of the population couldn´t read and write. So it is conceivable, that the nativity scene was used as a visual example of the religious teaching.

As the halftimbered house was built often in this part of Germany, especially by farmers, for whom religion was very important, people built their nativity scenes with this kind of building. So you can find many cribs in Franconia with halftimbered houses.

My pictures are always showing first the real building and then the scene, where the same house is used. You can see cribs, which are all found in the town of Bamberg or in the region near by.