Mosbach

Mosbach owns one of the most beautiful half-timbered houses in Germany and has the square to show it off. The Palm'sches Haus of 1610 rises over the Marktplatz in tier upon tier of carved oak — herringbone struts, ornamented sills, a merchant's fortune written in timber — flanked by the Renaissance town hall and a full company of gabled neighbours: the ensemble ranks among the finest market squares of the German southwest, and the town knows it, keeping the framing lanes in loving repair.

History layered the town between Palatinate and Baden: a Carolingian monastery gave the founding kernel, the collegiate church became — like several in the region — a simultaneous church, Catholic choir and Protestant nave divided by a wall through the Gothic body since 1708, faith's arithmetic in architecture. The Stadtmuseum in the old hospital and the Kiwwelschisser fountain — the citizens' self-mocking nickname immortalised in bronze — add character and humour.

Mosbach's setting is its second fortune: the Odenwald's wooded hills fold around the town, the Neckar bends close by with castle-crowned villages up- and downstream — Hornberg with Götz von Berlichingen's memory, Zwingenberg over the river — and the Elz brook valley leads walkers into quiet. The Mosbacher Sommer fills the square with concerts, the autumn market with crowds. Oak beams, shared naves, forest horizons: Mosbach is the Neckar-Odenwald's parlour, dressed for guests.