Heilbad Heiligenstadt

Heilbad Heiligenstadt is a Thuringian spa town right in the center of Germany.

It's the district capital of the administrative district called "the Eichsfeld".

Here's a view of the main town church St. Marien / Saint Mary with its double-towered steeple.
The whole Eichsfeld area was and still is mainly catholically. The second part of the town name Heiligenstadt you can translate into "town of the Saints" - so no wonder that the annual Palm Sunday procession with its full-sized figures attracts a lot of believers.

The St. Marien statue / Madonna inside the church.

The famous German writer Theodor Storm (most known novel: "Der Schimmelreiter" / "The Rider on the White Horse"), born at Husum (state of Schleswig-Holstein), was district judge at Heiligenstadt between 1856 and 1864. With the statue in front of the literature museum sharing the same name, Heilbad Heiligenstadt reminds his famous citizen. 

I'm not totally sure if the wall picture made of stone in the pedestrian zone is out of the period of the former GDR, so out of the time before the German reunification on 3rd October 1990. May be...

But I'm absolutely sure, that the "Klausmühle" / the "Klaus mill" is the house of birth of Heiligenstadt's most famous son: The wood carver and sculptor Tilman Riemenschneider, born 1460.

Several of his most famous art works you can find in the region where I live, e.g. the wodden "Holy Blood Altar" at Würzburg or the "Altar of Maria" at Creglingen.

So I hope you could see that the town of Heilbad Heiligenstadt, you certainly havn't heard of before, keeps some interesting places and stories on hand, if you take the time to get yourself into them.