Heiligenstadt, a town with a history reaching back more than a thousand years, lies some 90km/56mi northwest of Erfurt on the northwestern edge of the Thuringian Basin, at the foot of the hills of Iberg and Dün in the Leine valley.
For centuries the chief town of the Eichsfeld area, which was held by the Archbishops of Mainz, Heiligenstadt has preserved a number of historic buildings. It was the birthplace of the famous woodcarver Tilman Riemenschneider, and the 19th C writer Theodor Storm lived and worked in the town for some years.
The Propsteikirche of St Mary (also known as the Altstädter Kirche or Liebfrauenkirche) in Heiligenstadt is a Gothic hall-church (second half of 14th C.) with two octagonal towers. It has a beautiful figure of the Virgin (1414), a bronze font of 1492 and wall paintings of 1507.
Opposite the north doorway is the cemetery chapel of St Anne, an Early Gothic building (after 1300) on an octagonal plan, with an eight-sided stone pyramid and lantern.
Near St Mary's Church in Heiligenstadt, at Kollegiengasse 10, can be found the former Jesuit College, a Baroque building with a richly decorated main doorway (by C. Heinemann, 1739-40). It is now occupied by the Eichsfeld Heimatmuseum (history of town and region; collection of birds).
In the Leine valley, below Heiligenstadt's town walls, lies the Heinrich Heine Park, with the Kneipp Baths and the oldest memorial (1815) commemorating the German war of liberation in 1813.
From St Giles Church in Heiligenstadt it is only a few paces to the New Town Hall (1739; Baroque, with later alterations). In front of the Town Hall, in the Markt, is the Neptune Fountain (c. 1736).
In Heiligenstadt's new town stands the parish church of St Ägidien (St Giles; after 1333), with a richly furnished interior (reredos, 1638; bronze Gothic font and beautiful winged altar, 15th C.; 17th C. choir-stalls).
Adjoining the church is the Maria-Hilf-Kapelle (1405).
Large stretches of the Heiligenstadt old town walls have been preserved. The oldest building in Heiligenstadt is the former monastic church of St Martin, around which the town grew up, an aisled Gothic basilica (1304-1487) with a bronze Gothic font. In the tympanum of the north doorway can be seen a figure of St Martin on horseback (c. 1350). Heinrich Heine was baptized in this church in 1825.
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