Arche Noah Restaurant (stilt building) on the beach of St. Peter-Ording

The Noah's Ark Story

In 1959 the economic miracle took place in Germany. The cars had large tail fins, Ted Herold, Freddy, Dalida and Peter Kraus dominated the hit parades. In Hollywood, Paul Newman and Elizabeth Taylor won their first Oscars. The time was characterized by upswing, optimism and unclouded thinking about progress. The holiday and bathing activities on the coast experienced one visitor record after another. This is also the case and especially in St.Peter-Ording. This year, Ordinger veteran Horst Wieben built his first pile dwelling on the sandbank and called it “Noah's Ark”. Unfortunately, he underestimated the elemental power of the sea and built it too deep. It was destroyed in the great storm surge of 1962. Wieben, who tried to the last to save what could be saved, only narrowly escaped drowning.

The second Noah's Ark

In 1963 he built the second Noah's Ark, this time on stilts that rose 6 meters above the water. Today the terrace commemorates the first height of Noah's Ark. It was built on some of the remains of the first wooden piles. During this time, Noah's Ark also became the “harbor” for the famous Ordinger sand yachts. In the 1920s, Wieben's father Otto, together with the spa doctor Dr. Felten basically “invented” beach sailing. His son Horst was the winner of various national and international championship titles. Also unforgettable is the “largest sand yacht in the world” with a mast height of over 20 meters, in which Wieben could accommodate up to 15 people (for a fee, of course) and race over the entire sandbank. Before the increasing bathing activity made it necessary to designate demarcated zones for sand yachtsmen in order to prevent accidents, some regattas took place directly past Noah's Ark. The award ceremonies after the races and the parties that follow are legendary today. The hobby has now become a recognized international sport. Until the mid-1960s it was even possible to land airplanes on the sandbank.

The beach image of SPO is characterized by the stilt houses, which are up to 7 m high and have long since become the town's landmark. For more than 100 years, the wooden huts on stilts made of larch wood have contributed significantly to the design of St. Peter-Ording's beach image. There are pile dwellings close to the coast on every beach in Ording, Bad, Dorf and Böhl. In 1911 the first pile dwelling, the “Giftbude”, opened its doors in SPO. In a typical North German manner, the name indicates that after jumping into the cool water, it's "wat geev", because the main task of the wooden buildings back then was to ensure the well-being of beach visitors. In order to offer water lovers more comfort and safety on the beach, additional stilt houses for lifeguards and changing rooms were built.

Today there are five pile-dwelling restaurants on the long beach of SPO, which prepare one or two culinary delights for guests and locals. Here you can have a delicious meal with the best view of the North Sea and enjoy the sun on the terraces when the weather is good. The pile dwellings were also awarded the label “simple cultural property”.

st-peter-ording.de/reisefuehrer/nordsee-urlaub/pfahlhäusern.html

Interesting construction and seems to hold up