Halle

Halle grew around salt springs on the Saale, used since prehistory and first named Halla in 806. Its salt boilers, the Halloren, made the town rich, and for about two centuries it ruled itself as a member of the Hanseatic League under the archbishops of Magdeburg. In 1418 the town began the Red Tower, a bell tower built to the honour of God and for the adornment of Halle and its surroundings, which became its landmark.

In 1478 the town's independence ended. Archbishop Ernest II of Wettin issued a new constitution in 1479 that ended its Hanse membership in practice, and in 1484 he began the Moritzburg in the north-west corner as a fortified residence, intended as a stronghold against the self-confident salt boilers, and moved in ceremonially in 1503. Until 1680 Halle was the capital and residence of the archbishopric of Magdeburg.

Cardinal Albrecht of Brandenburg made Halle his favourite residence and built on the Moritzburg and the cathedral, but he demolished the Neuwerk monastery and the chapel of Saint Lambert, and his permanent lack of money led him to sell relics from the Halle collection. Between 1530 and 1554 the Romanesque churches of Saint Gertrude and Saint Mary on the market were torn down and replaced by the Marktkirche between their towers. After Albrecht left in 1541 the Reformation was introduced under Justus Jonas, and Luther preached several times in the Marktkirche; in 1546 his body lay in state here on its way from Eisleben to Wittenberg. Wallenstein's imperial troops occupied the town in 1625 and the Moritzburg burned out in 1637. In 1680 Halle fell with the archbishopric to Brandenburg, and the university opened in 1694.