Bad Hersfeld is a small town near the geographic center of Germany. There is a lively old-town (except when raining) with many buildings dating to the middle ages. There are also baths fed by mineral springs. You can take a sip of the water in the springhouse where an analysis posted on the wall indicates that the salt content is about one third that of seawater.

An abbey was founded here in the 8th century by St. Lullus, who succeeded Boniface as archbishop of Mainz. The monumental abbey church, now a ruin, was build in the 9th century. Martin Luther preached here on his return from the Diet of Wurms in 1521. The church burned in 1761, when a retreating French army set fire to their supplies which were stored there. Today the interior of the ruin has been converted into a theater with shows produced throughout the summer months.

Several signs around town and a sculpture memorialize the Mückenstürmer. In the summer of 1674, the citizens were alarmed to see a smoky cloud over the tower of the city church. They gathered ladders and buckets of water to storm the church only to discover that the “fire” was a dense swarm of gnats or mosquitoes (German: Mücken).

A romanesque church was built on this site beginning about A.D 1060. The current structure is the result of a series of renovations and expansions in the gothic period. The conversion of the church to Lutheranism during the Reformation and a renovation after an electrical fire in 1952 have yielded the elegantly simple interior.