Martin Luther was born in Eisleben in November 1483 and died there in February 1546, which is either a neat symmetry or a joke the town has never tired of telling. He had travelled to his hometown in the winter of 1546 to settle a quarrel between the counts of Mansfeld, and he fell ill and died in a house near the market square after a few days. The building is now a museum, and the Sterbehaus, the house in which he died, holds items from the last days of his life, with a room where he is believed to have breathed his last. His birth house is a few minutes' walk away, and both are on the UNESCO list.
The town, officially named Lutherstadt Eisleben, sits on the edge of the Harz foothills in Saxony-Anhalt, in a region that was once rich in copper. Mining in the Mansfeld area had been a major industry for centuries, and Luther's father worked in it, which is why Luther grew up in a family tied to the mines. The market square has a statue of Luther, and St Andrew's church, where his body lay before it was taken to Wittenberg, has a pulpit from which he preached.
The riding here is quiet and modest. Roads run through low, rolling farmland, with fields of wheat and sugar beet, old mining tips and and the Süßer See, a lake, to the east. Traffic is light except in the town centre, and the countryside has a post-industrial, thoughtful feel. Spring and autumn are the best seasons, and there are few crowds except around Luther anniversaries and the Reformation festivals.
Eisleben has around 24,000 people and has everything you need, with fuel, shops, and restaurants around the market. For food, a plate of Thuringian-style sausage or a bowl of bean soup is easy to find. Allow an hour for the museum. The house is a reminder that the great turning point of European history began with quarrels and sermons in places much like this, and the quiet streets here carry the weight of that story without making a fuss.