The old Hanseatic town of Herford lies in the fertile hilly region between the Wiehengebirge and the Teutoburg Forest, at the junction of the Aa with the Werre. It has a variety of industry, in particular furniture manufacture and textiles. The Baroque architect Matthäus Daniel Pöppelmann was born in Herford in 1662.
Bünde (13km/8mi northwest of Herford) is the center of the Westphalian tobacco industry. It has an interesting Tobacco Museum (tobacco pipes of varying origin, tobacco jars, a cigar 1.60 m/5.25ft long).
In Höckerstrasse (pedestrian zone) in Herford, which runs southwest from the Neuer Markt, is the Bürgermeisterhaus (1538), with a handsome Late Gothic stepped gable. This is said to have been the birthplace of Matthäus Daniel Pöppelmann, the famous Baroque architect.
In Enger (9km/6mi northwest of Herford) the former monastic church of St Dionysius (12th and 14th C.) contains the sarcophagus of Duke Wittekind of Saxony, whose date of death is given as 807, with a magnificent relief grave-slab (c. 1100).
The Herford old town lies around the Minster of the former convent (13th C.; 16th C. Late Gothic font), the oldest of the larger hall-churches of Westphalia. Opposite the church is the Town Hall (1917).
Farther west is the 14th C. Jakobikirche (St James's Church).
On the Deichtorwall (on the west side of the old town) in Herford can be found the Municipal Museum (history, culture and art of the town and the former abbey).
To the east of Herford's town center, on the Lutterberg, is the 14th C. Stiftberg Church (St Mary's; west tower 1904), one of the finest Gothic hall-churches in Westphalia, with a Late Gothic tabernacle.
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