In October 1636, on the hills south of Wittstock, a Swedish army crushed the combined forces of the Holy Roman Emperor and Saxony in one of the bloodiest battles of the Thirty Years' War. Archaeologists later found a mass grave of soldiers on the battlefield, and a museum in the tower of the old bishop's castle in Wittstock tells the story of the war and its brutal impact on ordinary people. The town itself is enclosed by one of the most complete medieval brick walls in Germany, with towers and a gate.
Wittstock lies in the Prignitz, the north-western corner of Brandenburg, a region of farmland, forests and small rivers, sparsely populated and quiet. To the south-east stretches the Kyritz-Ruppiner Heide, a vast heathland that was used by the Soviet army as a bombing range during the Cold War. A long campaign by locals prevented the German military from taking it over after reunification, and today it is a protected landscape of heather, sand and pine, glowing purple in late summer.
The riding here is relaxed, with long, straight roads through fields and forests, and occasional gentle curves. Traffic is light, apart from the motorway junction, where the A24 and A19 meet near the town. The roads can be windy on the open fields, and wildlife is a hazard at dawn and dusk. Some villages still have cobbled streets.
Wittstock has fuel, a supermarket or two and places to eat, and the old town has cafés where you can sit near the walls. The Harz mountains are still far to the south-west, a long ride across the plain, so this is a good place for a solid meal and a full tank.