Spring in Bern (and its magnificent surroundings)

I would like to welcome spring with a couple of paintings dedicated to the season and to Bern and its region: a wonderful city and an infinitely beautiful landscape. A place of my heart, which I miss a lot.

A barn swallow (Hirundo rustica, Schwalbe) and a house martin (Delichon urbicum, Mehlschwalbe) sitting on the Nydegg bridge, near the church, in a spring view of Bern. From here you can see the gothic Nydeggkirche and its beautiful medieval quarter, with Nydeggstalden street going down, between seventeenth-century houses, towards the banks of the Aare river

(Hand)Drawing in progress, pencil on Arches watercolour paper, cold pressed, 100% cotton 

Illustration of a riparian wood in spring (with its inhabitants) painted for the Landverlag Publishing house of Langnau in the Emmental

Monschau

Summer thunderstorm over the half-timbered village of Monschau (Eifel, Germany)

Hagenwil Castle - Schloss Hagenwil

This beautiful castle, one of the most picturesque and iconic castles in Switzerland, was built in the 13th century and is still surrounded by a wide moat. It is immersed in a beautiful idyll of meadows and orchards and is one of the few examples in Europe of castles with moat preserved in their original architectural form (drawbridge, tower, palace, chapel, battlements).
The castle was besieged in 1405 by the troops from Appenzell (Appenzeller Kriege, Wars of Appenzell); during the 15th and 16th centuries (largely under the Bernhausen family) he took on its Gothic appearance. In 1633, during the Thirty Years War, he was attacked and looted by the Swedish troops.
From 1684 it was a small summer residence of the Abbots of St. Gallen. Today it is privately owned and a restaurant.

Viking houses

A small illustration with Viking houses (based mainly on the reconstructions of the Viking city of Hedeby, Haithabu in german). In the background, a large longhouse. 10th century AD.
This illustration was published in a Swiss school textbook published by Landverlag / Campus Natur