Helmstedt, situated in a depression between the Lappwald and the Elm range, preserves some attractive 16th century half-timbered houses and remains of its 15th century walls. In 1576 Duke Julius of Brunswick established a Protestant university here, the Academia Julia, which for a time was the most frequented university in Germany but which was abolished in 1810. In the surrounding area are large deposits of lignite.
In Juliusplatz in Helmstedt stands the Juleum (1592-97), the palatial main building of the old University. Notable features of the interior are the Auditorium Maximum, the Library (c. 30,000 titles) and, in the cellar, the District Heimatmuseum.
On a low hill to the west of Helmstedt is the Augustinian nunnery of Marienberg, founded in 1176, with a Romanesque church (13th C. wall paintings) and a collection of vestments and tapestries.
In the Marktplatz in Helmstedt stands the handsome neo-Gothic Town Hall (1906) and the Herzogliches Hoflager (Ducal Warehouse), a richly decorated half-timbered building of 1567. At the end of the street called Papenberg is the parish church of St Stephen (13th and 15th C.), which has a high altar of 1644, the "Moses Pulpit" (1590) and a brass font (also 1590).
On the east side of Helmstedt is the Benedictine monastery of St Ludger, founded in the ninth century and dissolved in 1803 (Imperial Hall, with fine Baroque stucco decoration). It is entered by the handsome Türkentor (1716). In the courtyard is the double chapel of SS. Peter and John (c. 1050). Beneath the church (Romanesque; much altered in 1556 and in 1890) is a Romanesque crypt (11th C.).
Read More
Read Less
