Brilon

Brilon stands on the Sauerland heights near the upper Möhne. An older estate was recorded in 973, and Archbishop Engelbert of Cologne founded a planned, fortified town nearby between 1217 and 1220, granting it rights modelled on those of Soest. Its two main streets crossed at the market square within a roughly circular enclosure. Brilon joined the Hanseatic League, and its trade was supported by mining, smelting and hammer works in the surrounding hills. These crafts helped make it a prosperous Westphalian town in the fifteenth century.