Melsungen

Melsungen stands on the Fulda River in the Hessian uplands, at the confluence of the Pfieffe and Kehrenbach streams. Its position at the meeting of three medieval trade routes, including the Sälzerweg and the north–south Nürnberger Straße, helped make it a local centre. The town was contested by the archbishops of Mainz and the landgraves of Hesse and Thuringia.

A fire destroyed part of the town centre in 1554. Its surviving buildings include the town hall of 1556 and a residence built for Landgrave Philip between 1550 and 1557. The Bartenwetzer bridge across the Fulda was constructed in 1595–1596. During the Thirty Years' War, the nearby community of Günsterode was devastated in 1637; it is now part of Melsungen.