We happened upon Memmingen quite by accident in May, 2002 as we were making our way north from Italy. We were not able to take our original path because of a road closure, and as we made ourselves a new path, we happened upon this delightful old town in southern Germany.

It was founded around 1150 and has seen its share of changes over the following 800 years. In the middle ages, the local merchants developed a flourishing trade in spices, salt, wine, silks and furs. This combined with its location on well used trade routes made it a very important city at the time. Although it was somewhat damaged during the bombing of 1945, it remains pretty much intact.

The first thing that caught our attention of the town is the layout - the old walled town is surrounded by parkland on almost all sides. The modern roads are routed around the park area, with only a few crossing through town, providing relative quiet to the old town center. The most important part of the old town is the Market Square, highlighted by the Rathaus (the white building in the picture above) which has been much altered from the original Renaissance building. Nonetheless, it is still quite handsome with its 3 turrets from the 16th century and Rococo relief added in the 18th century. The local bike club is meeting in the square for the Wednesday night ride.

Just to the left of the Rathaus sits a long building that has a quite elegant painted finish (left). Today is is filled with shops on the ground floor, but its original purpose was probably as a market place as well. 

Cutting through the center of town is a brook (complete with trout) that provides a pleasant place to stroll. In the picture at right, the brook is lined with shops and leads to the Frauenkirche (The church of our Lady) which has some excellent frescoes. A very unusual building is also found in this area, the “Seven Roofed House” (left) which was built in 1601 by the tanner’s family for the drying of skins, hence the special roof design. The building was severely damaged by bombs in 1945 but has since been restored.

The town has several churches with interesting bell towers. Among them, the Kreuzherrnkirche (late 17th century) is pictured at far right and the St. Martins Church (1500) is pictured above, center.

In August 2006 we returned once again on our path from the Black Forest to Olching (near Munich). We ate at a great restaurant across from our hotel. The restaurant is the Gasthof zum Schwanen and they were one of the busiest in town. Now we know why - they have a great variety of good food at reasonable prices. They specialize in Balkan, German and Italian foods so there is something for almost every taste.

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