Lemgo was founded around 1190 by Prince Bernhard III of Lippe. Due to the town’s favourable transport location, it was to become a long-distance trading town and later a Hanseatic town. In the historic old town you can still sense the town’s long history in many places: be it the many stone and half-timbered houses in Gothic and Renaissance style, the Junkerhaus or the Hexenhaus. This is a reminder of the witch hunts in Lemgo in the 16th and 17th centuries. While the medieval town centre remained almost undestroyed during the Second World War, the old buildings gradually fell into disrepair in the 1970s.
