When walking through the medieval town centre, you often don’t know where to look first. With its late Gothic buildings such as the town hall and the town church of St. George, as well as the numerous Franconian half-timbered houses, Schmalkalden is considered one of the most beautiful half-timbered towns in southern Thuringia. Only remnants of the two rings of walls that once enclosed the town are still visible. The former spa town and once the second largest town in Hesse is especially famous for Luther’s “Schmalkaldic Articles”, the Schmalkaldic War and the Schmalkaldic League. In addition, some famous theologians, the historian Johann Konrad Geisthirt and Carl Wilhelm, the composer of the song “Wacht am Rhein”, came from Schmalkalden.
