* Altensteig in Germany’s Black Forest region is an intact ensemble of rococo buildings. But few of the municipality’s 5,500 people want to live in the unrenovated, old buildings without central heating. They prefer homes on the outskirts with all comforts.

By Ingo Senft-Werner

The walk up to Altensteig’s old half-timbered castle is quite a strain on the knees, but it’s worth it. What awaits you is a view of one of Germany’s last remaining, intact rococo-style towns.

Situated in Germany’s Black Forest region, Altensteig’s old town centre consists of about 30 lattice-framed houses that date back to the 17th and 18th centuries. Clustered around the church on top of a hill, Altensteig can only be described as a picture-postcard German town.

“Even Lufthansa has used a photograph of us in its advertising,” says Altensteig’s mayor, Gerhard Feess.

But Altensteig’s historic facades are showing their age. The windows in the long-closed town pharmacy are thick with dirt and a pane of glass is broken. A few doors down, a “house for sale” sign hangs in a window.

Beside the sign is a freshly cut red carnation flower -- an attempt, perhaps, to liven up a rather dreary scene. But the chances that anyone will take an interest in the house are slim.

That is, unless the impossible happens, and the package-holiday company Tui converts the old part of town into a village hotel.

“That would be like winning the lottery,” says the mayor. The aim is to attract young families to the old area, which has emptied as residents move to modern homes on the town outskirts. Feess called a meeting of the town’s citizens right after the idea was suggested.

“There was not one person who spoke against it.” An investor has offered to pay for the renovation of about 15 houses and then lease them to Tui. But a few weeks ago Tui’s board of management was replaced and plans to reinvent Altensteig as a holiday resort are on ice. However, Tui’s spokesman Robin Zimmermann says the company is still very interested in going ahead with the project.

Tui already has a number of resorts where guests stay in a village specially built for holidays, but none are quite like Altensteig, which would represent Tui’s “first village hotel in a living town.”

A decision is expected in June at the earliest.

Altensteig has 5,500 residents, but few of them care to live in the cramped old houses that accommodated their ancestors. There are similar towns in Italy where tourists stroll past galleries, souvenir shops and cafes, and the locals are still in residence.

Altensteig was once like that, as the few remaining cafes and restaurants testify, but most of the town’s tourist infrastructure has closed, even though the pretty Black Forest region is known around the world as a magical tourist destination.

The exodus from the town centre began very quietly decades ago. In the beginning, the families with children started moving away. “A family wants a garden or at least a balcony. Naturally they also want to have a parking spot for their car in front of their door,” says Christoph Oldenkotte, explaining the reasons for the departures. Oldenkotte runs Altensteig’s municipal culture department.

Oldenkotte has personal experience of the problems, as he moved into the old town centre a few weeks ago. “You either like the half-timbered feel to the place, or you don’t,” he admits.

Many of the houses don’t have the usual comforts modern homes have, like central heating and insulation for Germany’s cold winters.

But in a sign that this could change, a utility company has laid a pipeline supplying heat made from renewable energy sources. The Altensteig homes could be hooked up to hot-water pipes.

Once families began deserting Altensteig the town’s shops started closing down. The low point came in 2006 when the town’s administration moved its headquarters from the hill down to the valley.

The new administration building has plenty of parking spaces and is easy to reach for locals. The old town hall in the historic quarter has lain empty ever since the move. If the holiday resort ever comes to fruition, the hotel reception will be located here.

Many villages in Tuscany in Italy have gone through what Altensteig is experiencing now. Large swathes of countryside there have been depopulated. The great hope is that tourism will revitalise the region.

In 2007 Tui bought a huge section of land around the village of Castelfalfi, situated between Siena, Florence and Pisa.

 “There were just five local people living there when we arrived,” says Tui spokesman Zimmermann.

Several farms have been restored and are being rented out to holidaymakers. New hotels are being planned, but due to Italy’s economic slowdown, and problems with planning permission, the project is proceeding slower than hoped.

It seems that tourism is the only way for places like Altensteig and its aging infrastructure to survive. “But we cannot just say we’re going to give up,” says Fees with a defiant note in his voice. “We have inherited a piece of history and we cannot let it simply fade away.”