Mühlhausen, Germany - May 14, 2010

Reven's Tower and City Gate

Mühlhausen - officially Mühlhausen/Thüringen - lies along the river Unstrut and is home to about 37,000 souls. Its first known recorded mention was in 967 and, although King Henry the Fowler bestowed some priviliges upon the area, the 13th through the 15th centuries were the town's real heyday. Later, for less than a year in from 1707-1708, Johann Sebastian Bach tinkled the ivories on the organ in the Church of Saint Blaise.

One of these built the Brooklyn Bridge -
read on to find out more

The town was pretty much wrecked between 1618 and 1648 during the Thirty Years' War and was further trashed during the Seven Years' War from 1756 to 1763. These disasters, along with endles political infighting reduced the place to insignificance. Like much of the area, it fell to Prussian authority in 1802, was conquered by the Kingdom of Westphalia in 1807 before being snatched back by Prussia again in 1815. From 1944 to March 1945, a slave labor camp for women was operated outside of town until the inmates were deported to Bergen Belsen in April 1945.
A relatively small old town with few "big rides" (or any rides at all) we nevertheless had a pleasamt trudge around in cool, sunless weather. See here for some views.