Tom`s travels: Fulda, Melsungen, Kassel & Hannoversch Münden (07-08/05/2022)

On a nice sunny early May weekend, I decided to take a fast train from Berlin and visit a few places in the state of Hesse. My first stop was the city of Fulda, which I reached in just a little over three hours. Once there, I headed out of the train station and in the direction of the old town, following a wide street that from the station brought me shortly after to the Universitätsplatz. A little bit further I then passed by the lovely town hall, a reconstruction of what it looked like back in the 16th century with timber framings. Next to it was the church of St Blasius, a nice baroque religious monument dating to the end of the 18th century. It faces a small quaint square with a nice baroque obelisk fountain and with cafès and restaurants all around. After that I moved on, walking northwards and passing by the large structure of the Stadtschloss which I would come back to later. As I walked along the street I noticed a curious and funny feature: all around the city center were in fact some unique traffic lights which instead of having the traditional green and red pedestrian figures, featured a man with a robe and a crosier or staff in his hand. This is supposed to be the figure of St Boniface, known as the "Apostle of the Germans", who also founded the Fulda monastery (through one of his disciples) and is now the patron saint of the city's diocese. In fact just a few steps away I then reached the main monument in town, the impressive Fulda Cathedral, the former abbey church of Fulda Abbey, and the burial place of the aforementioned saint. Unfortunately, as I reached the entrance I saw a mass was taking place so I decided to come back later to visit. Right next to the cathedral through I managed to visit St Michael's church, one of the oldest churches in Germany and the oldest replica of the Church of the Holy Sepulchre in the country. Built at the beginning of the 9th century in the Pre-Romanesque, Carolingian architectural style, it served as a burial chapel for the nearby Fulda monastery. In the 10th and 11th centuries, the church was extended from the central plan, and a west tower was built; at the beginning of the 18th century, a chapel was also added to the north side. The main feature was the central rotunda and crypt still standing from the original 9th-century construction. Photos were not allowed inside, but I managed to take a couple without being noticed as it was really worth seeing. After the visit to the church, I continued on my tour through the city and after passing under the nice baroque northern city cate, Paulustor, from 1771, I then reached the castle gardens. The grounds were unfortunately disheveled and I had to walk around the construction site to get across them. Despite being a nice sunny May weekend it looked like there was still lots of work ahead to fix the gardens so I was not sure they would be done by the end of summer: when most people would've appreciated walking around them. Nevertheless, after passing by the Orangerie building and the baroque part of the gardens, I then once again reached the Stadtschloss and decided to enter. This large magnificent city palace now shows an elegant baroque appearance from the 18th century but was originally started as a medieval castle. There were several well-dressed people walking around and I noticed it was mostly teens either for the last day of their last school year or for the Christian confirmation. Heading inside the palace I was disappointed as apparently the museum was closed as they were setting up a new exhibit and there was no way to visit the historical rooms. Walking around the mostly empty premise I ended up managing to see a few other rooms, including a nice white stuccoed room with paintings at the ground level facing the gardens, and two more rooms on the top floor, one smaller one with elegant tapestries, and another much larger really nice room with painted ceilings usually used as a meeting place for the city council. When I went there though a small music class was taking place with the students performing some nice music that I decided to sit and listen to for a couple of minutes. There was though a small museum inside the castle's north wing which was freely accessible that held a room exhibiting the costumes and objects of the local carnival event which was interesting to have a quick look at. After that, it was finally time to head and see the interior of the Cathedral. As mentioned the Cathedral was founded as an abbey in 744 by Saint Sturm, a disciple of Boniface. After Boniface was buried here, the site gained in popularity and importance and grew quite well and fast. After many centuries as a prominent center of learning and culture in Germany, and a site of religious significance and pilgrimage it was dissolved in 1802 by Napoleon, and its principality was secularized. The current form of the cathedral is that of the early 18th-century baroque reconstruction which provided it with front twin towers and a large central cupola. Both the outside and inside were impressive to look at; the interior in fact shows the influence of Roman Baroque, combining elements of St. Peter's Basilica and St. John Lateran in Rome. White was the most prevailing color, with whitewashed walls and marble statues, but also gold with typical pompous decorations evident in the main and side altars as well as in the pulpit and huge organ. The organ is also used often to provide concerts for visitors, one of which had just finished as I entered the church. After visiting the nice monument, I then headed out and as I still had time decided to walk to the nearby hill known as the Frauenberg just north of the city center. After a short climb, I reached the top where the Frauenberg monastery, a late baroque building from the end of the 18th century, was set. From here I also had a commanding view of Fulda and its surrounding landscape. After that I walked back down the hill and through the town once again, passing first by the Hexenturm, one of the surviving traces of the medieval fortifications of the city. Walking onwards I passed by some nice side streets and eventually ended up at a crowded small square, the Buttermarkt, where the also crowded Marktstrasse leads to the church of St Blasius. Up next was the lovely cloister of the Abbey of St Mary where the nuns grow fruit, vegetables, and herbs alongside several handicraft workshops and a monastery shop. From there it was time to head to the train station from where I then took a train to the next town: Melsungen. The place is known for its timber-framed buildings, some of the nicest I had ever seen in fact. As I exited the station, I crossed over the Fulda river and entered the well-preserved old town. Immediately the aforementioned timber-framed houses surrounded me with the typical gray and brownish frames on a white base. As I then reached the main square, the Markt, I came upon the large 16th-century town hall set solitary in the center of the square with a colorful red timber framing. Just one block away I then reached and entered the main church in town, the Stadtkirche. Originally built as a Romanesque building, only the bell tower, erected in 1230, still survives from that period. The rest of the church dates from the 14th and 15th centuries in a Gothic style. After visiting the interior, I then continued my walk through the rest of the city, passing by the Eulenturm, a fortified tower built around 1387 and part of the former city wall. Moving onwards, I explored the lesser and smaller streets of the old town, all filled with beautiful timber-framed buildings. The sun was out once again and made it look even prettier in its light. I then also passed by the Schloss Melsungen, a late Weser Renaissance castle in the city center which today houses the local tax office. From there, after a last stroll through town, it was time to head to the station and catch my train to Kassel. I thus crossed the Fulda river once more, this time over the Bartenwetzerbrücke, a stone bridge built at the end of the 16th century. At the end of the bridge, I reached the secondary station of Melsungen from where I was then able to get the next ride into Kassel. Once in the city, I came out of the main train station and headed out to visit the city center. It was a sunny Saturday afternoon and the city was full of people out and about and very lively. Unfortunately, like many German cities, Kassel was heavily bombed during WWII and thus had only very few historical buildings surviving. I first passed by the Druselturm, a 15th-century tower part of the city fortifications and the only defensive structure remaining. Not far from it I then reached the church of St Martin, a gothic church from the 14th and 15th centuries, mostly rebuilt after WW2. Next up was another old church, the Brüderkirche, also in Gothic style. From there I then walked along a busy street until I reached the Friedrichsplatz, one of the largest inner-city squares in Germany. This area used to be the baroque addition to the city that was constructed outside the medieval walls during the 17th and 18th centuries. Nowadays on the northeastern side of the square is the Fridericianum, a museum that since 1955 holds quinquennial modern art festival documents. The building dates to 1779 and it is one of the oldest public museums in Europe. Next to the square, downhill on a flat area close to the Fulda river, is the Karlsaue. This huge public park was once a baroque landscape park with ponds, tree-lined avenues, and a baroque Orangerie building. Walking through it on that fine sunny day was really pleasant as it seemed like also for most of the people laying there in the grass, enjoying their time. From the park, I then went up the Weinbergterrasse, a terrace on the side of the hilly outcrop on which the city stands which featured and still features some small vineyards. Here I passed by some of the city museums, such as the Grimmwelt, the Hessian State Museum, and the New Gallery. Then I walked past the Karlskirche, the church built in the baroque expansion of the city, and past the large town hall. At that point, it was time to head towards my accommodation, which was located outside the city center on the western part of Kassel. The way there took about one hour, and after reaching the Airbnb I checked in and headed out to find some food; I stopped by at a local stand Husaren-Grill on the street in front of the supermarket to have sausage and fries with a side salad for a good value. The following morning, I woke up early and headed out to reach the main attraction of the city, the Bergpark Wilhelmshöhe. The way there took about 40 minutes and was first through the furthest suburbs of Kassel and then through the forest. After reaching the park I marveled at the impressive panorama. The park was constructed in 1689 at the behest of the Landgraves of Hesse-Kassel and took about 150 years to complete. It is located on a hillside overlooking the city and it is 2.4 square kilometers in size, making it the largest European hillside park, and the second largest park on a hill slope in the world. Due to its monumental Baroque architecture and its unique fountains and water features, it is now a Unesco world heritage site. Generally, the place is quite crowded but as it was early, around 9:30ish, and the fountains and waterfalls were still turned off that meant that it was just me and a couple of morning joggers. I started out by visiting the upper and main part. This consists of a large staircase that from the Neptunegrotto leads up to the highest point, the Karlsberg mountain at 526.2 meters. From the Neptune grotto and basin, I started my ascent of the staircase admiring the beautiful view up to the top, and back down towards the city in the distance. Once I reached the top I gazed at the impressive Hercules monument, a 40-meter high pyramid with an 8.5-meter bronze statue of Hercules, a copy of the third-century Farnese Hercules statue in Rome. The monument was partly under scaffolding but still nice to see. Once there I admire the view below and imagined through the use of a signboard the voyage the water would take from the top here down through the park and its many waterfalls, ponds, and channels. It was a bit sad not to be able to experience the water show but still worth not having all the tourists crowds around. As I descended downhill, I then explored other parts of the park, passing by the second station of the water flow. I then reached the Löwenburg, an imitation of a medieval English castle that was deliberately built partly ruined in the romantic historicist style. It was mostly under restructuring and required an entry ticket so I decided to walk on. I passed by the Teufelsbrücke, or devil's bridge, which usually features an impressive waterfall at that moment still turned off. Then a series of features recalling classicist themes, such as the Temple of Mercury, the Roman Aqueduct ruins, the Tomb of Virgil, the Pyramid of Cestius, and the Jussow Temple. At that point, I reached the lower part of the park where the Great Fountain is located. With a spray reaching 50 meters in height, the Great Fountain was the largest fountain in Europe at the time of its creation in 1767. In front of it was the Schloss Wilhelmshöhe, built for Landgrave Wilhelm (William) IX of Hesse in the late 18th century as the park's completion. Emperor Wilhelm II made extensive use of it as a summer residence and personal retreat, and nowadays it holds a museum inside. At that point, despite the fact the water show would start in an hour and the place was starting to fill with tourists, it was time to head out of the park and to the nearby train station of Kassel-Wilhelmshöhe from where I then took a regional train that took me to the nearby town of Hannoversch Münden, just a few kilometers northeast of Kassel. After reaching the destination and getting off the train, I headed on to visit the picturesque city center. The town is known in fact for its charming old town, filled with timber-framed houses enclosed by a partly surviving medieval wall with some defensive towers still standing. As I approached the old town, I came upon the first of the many towers, the Kronenturm, a circular medieval stone tower. Not far from it I then passed by the church of St. Aegidien, the smaller of the two historic churches in the city center. Its current form dates to the 17th and 18th-century refurbishment which gave it its characteristic half-stone, half-wooden bell tower. Continuing on I then passed by the Obertor, a short thick tower once used as a bulwark defense. Next to it were two more towers, the Ziegelpfortenturm, 21m in height, and the much taller Fährenpfortenturm. The latter is the highest and most notable of the town's towers and reached a height of around 40 meters, as it was once used as a shot tower. From that landmark I then headed finally through the narrow streets of the old town, sided by some beautiful timber-framed houses some of which were over six hundred years old. I tried to walk through as many side streets as possible to gaze at all the colors and decorations of the town's buildings. Hann. Münden's layout is in fact grid-like and easy to navigate. At one point I then reached the center of the old town, where the church of St Blasius is set. This three-aisled, Gothic hall church was built over several centuries on a pre-existing church and its interior features a really nice bronze baptismal font from 1392. Next to the church, on the northern end of the square, was the nice Rathaus, featuring a nice Renaissance style and with a restored colorful main portal. From there I then continued on through some other nice streets lined with tall and slender timber-framed houses before reaching the Welfenschloss, the city castle. It was originally built as a gothic structure at the beginning of the 16th century, before being turned into a sumptuous Weser Renaissance structure at the end of the same century. After being destroyed in the Thirty Years' War, the castle was used as barracks and later as a granary while today it is used by the city's institutions and has lost most of its architectural structure. Not far from the castle, on the northern end of the old town, I then passed by the nice Alte Werrabrücke, a 105-meter-long stone arch bridge over the Werra river, and one of the oldest bridges in the area having been built in the 14th century. The city was flooded several times throughout its history, and a building right on the river showed some markings of the floods that occurred throughout the centuries. The most recent, 1995 was also the lowest reaching my waist, while the most remote 1342 was several meters high. After that, I continued walking along the outer part of the old town until I then reached the western part. Here I climbed a low hill reaching then a beautiful viewpoint from where I could see the whole old town down below. There was also the Tillyschanze, an observation tower built from 1881 to 1885 which also granted a nice view of the surroundings. The entrance was paid and I thought the view was the same as the panoramic point so I decided not to enter. At that point it was time to head onwards, I crossed once again the picturesque city center and after reaching the train station, took the next train towards the final destination of the trip, the city of Göttingen. A known university city, this was also one of the choices of our master and so I had always wished to visit it eventually. After getting there, I first headed towards the university campus, located just outside the city center. I passed by the buildings where our master studies were located, but as it was a Sunday everything was closed. I then decided to head into the city and visit the historical center. Once there, I walked along the main street filled with people and lined by shops, at that time closed. Halfway down the street I then reached the church of St Jacob a three-aisled Gothic Hall church built between 1361 and 1433 with a 72m high bell tower making it the tallest building in Göttingen's old town. The interior was nicely renovated and featured an interesting early 15th-century altar. After the visit to the church, I continued along the main street, passing by the Raths-Apotheke, a pharmacy from 1553, before then reaching the town's main square, the Marktplatz. Here was located the old town hall begun in 1270 and completed after several construction phases. In front of the town hall, was a nice fountain, the Gänseliesel-Brunnen, erected in 1901 and featuring a girl and a goose. Nowadays the fountain is an essential part of Göttingen's graduation celebrations, every student who finishes a doctorate at the university has to climb the fountain and kiss the statue of the girl. Behind the town hall, I then passed by the church of St John, another three-aisled Gothic Hall church from the 14th century. It features two tall twin bell towers, the northern one of which suffered heavy damage during a fire in 2005. From there I continued through the old town, admiring some nice examples of timber-framed houses. Not far from it was the Paulinerkirche, a monastery church from the early 14th century now used by the Göttingen State and University Library. Another Gothic Hall church was St Nicholas, which since 1822 is used as the university's church. After walking past more timber-framed houses, I then saw one more church, St Albani, yet another Gothic Hall structure from the 15th century. On the northern end of town, I then entered the nice and secluded Alter Botanischer Garten, owned by the University, but free to visit, it is quite small yet contains 12,000 different plant species. It was time to head back to the train station, this time by walking along the outer circle of the old town, where once the old town walls used to stand, now only part of which remains. After reaching the station I then waited for my train back to Berlin.