The best city hikes and walks in the Thuringian Forest

The Altmarkt forms the center of the historic old town of Schmalkalden.

The historic old town of Schmalkalden enchants with its fairytale-like centre full of colourful half-timbered houses, a magnificent castle and many other sights – and all around, extensive hiking and cycling trails stretch out in the Thuringian Forest.

In February 1537, Martin Luther (1483-1546) was plagued by kidney stones. It was precisely at this time that the great reformer was confined to his sickbed. He had traveled to Schmalkalden in Thuringia for a meeting of the Schmalkaldic League. It was therefore decided to hold the meeting in the house of Luther's host. The members of the League gathered around his sickbed. The League had been founded in 1531, in the same place, by the Protestant princes and imperial cities against the religious policy of the Catholic emperor. In 1537 - 20 years after Luther's 95 Theses and the associated beginning of the Reformation - the future of faith in Europe was discussed in this charming half-timbered house. Around 1520, the host Balthasar Wilhelm, a good friend of Martin Luther, had the representative building erected in a prime city-center location, right next to the ascent to Wilhelmsburg Castle. Luther was a guest here for almost three weeks in 1537, receiving visitors, preaching, and publishing his famous Schmalkaldic Articles, a kind of confession of faith of the Evangelical Lutheran Church. Source: https://www.denkmalschutz.de/denkmal/lutherhaus-lutherplatz-7.html

The composer Johann Sebastian Bach was born on March 21, 1685, in Eisenach. The Bach Monument at the Bachhaus in Eisenach was created in 1884, designed by the sculptor Adolf von Donndorf and manufactured by Hermann Heinrich Howaldt. At the time, it was erected on the market square, in front of the north side of the Georgenkirche, and around 1938 it then received its place in front of the Bachhaus on Frauenplan. The Eisenach Bachhaus was opened in 1907 by the Neue Bachgesellschaft as the first Bach Museum. Quelle: https://www.eisenach.de/startseite/newsdetails/eisenacher-bachdenkmal-ist-nach-restaurierung-wieder-aufgestellt/

The Bach monument on the Frauenplan in front of the Bachhaus was created by Adolf von Donndorf and inaugurated in 1884. The annual Bach commemorations on his birthday, March 21, take place here.

The Bachhaus Eisenach is the world's first and largest museum dedicated to the composer Johann Sebastian Bach, who was born in Eisenach. The memorial site, opened in 1907 by the Neue Bachgesellschaft, is located at Frauenplan 21 and consists of a historic half-timbered house, around 550 years old, as well as an award-winning modern extension. Visitors can expect an exhibition area of over 600 square meters with around 250 to 300 original exhibits, historic living rooms, and multimedia installations.

Since 1931, the city castle on the market square has housed essential parts of the Thuringian Museum, founded in 1899 and initially located in the Predigerkloster monastery. The castle was built between 1741 and 1748 by the regional master builder Gottfried Heinrich Krohne, but it never served princely representative purposes, as the Eisenach princely line died out during this period. Through an exchange with the state of Thuringia, to which the castle had fallen after the revolution of 1918/19, the city came into its possession and initially housed the Curt Elschner Gallery (1925) and then the Thuringian Museum (1931). The museum's main collections include Thuringian porcelain, faience, glass, graphics, wrought iron, genre and landscape painting from the second half of the 19th century, as well as rich ethnographic holdings. Source: https://www.eisenach.de/kultur/museen/thueringer-museum-eisenach/stadtschloss/

The highlight is the wheels in the facade.