Martin Luther was born in Eisleben on 10 November 1483, and by an odd twist of fate he died here too, in 1546, while on a visit to settle a dispute between the counts of Mansfeld. The house where he was born was rebuilt after a fire in the seventeenth century and became one of the first museums in Germany dedicated to a single person. Together with the house where he died and the sites in Wittenberg where he lived and taught, it forms the UNESCO site of the Luther Memorials in Eisleben and Wittenberg, listed in 1996. The museum tells the story of Luther's family, his childhood and the beginning of the Reformation, and it has been extended with modern exhibitions.
Eisleben is a small town in the Mansfeld Land, a region shaped by copper mining for over eight hundred years. Luther's father was a miner and smelter, and the landscape around the town is dotted with conical slag heaps, the legacy of centuries of mining. The town itself has a pleasant old centre, with the market square, the churches of St Andreas, where Luther preached his last sermons, and St Peter and Paul, where he was baptised.
The riding around Eisleben is gentle, with rolling hills, fields and small villages. To the west, the Harz mountains rise, offering some of the best riding in central Germany, with winding roads through forests, valleys and over passes, and the Brocken, the highest peak, looming over everything. The Selke and Bode valleys are particularly scenic, with cliffs, castles and tight bends. Traffic is light, but watch for wildlife, especially deer and wild boar, and be aware that the Harz roads are popular with bikers and closely monitored by police.
Eisleben, with twenty-four thousand inhabitants, has fuel, supermarkets and restaurants. Order a bowl of Soljanka, the sour, spicy soup that is still a fixture in eastern Germany, or a plate of Thuringian sausages with sauerkraut and mustard. The Süßer See, a lake east of town, has a lakeside path and places for a break, and in summer you can swim there. Halle, about thirty kilometres away, is a larger city with more options for food and accommodation.