Hildesheim

Hildesheim has many sightseeing attractions for tourists. This district of Lower Saxony is particularly well-known for its magnificent churches: the Mary’s Cathedral (Marien Dom), one of the oldest bishop's cathedrals  in Germany, and St. Michael’s were declared a World Cultural Heritage by UNESCO in 1985. Another highlight of the city is the historical Market Square with the Knochenhauer-Amtshaus. Around the square, which Wilhelm von Humboldt once called "the most beautiful marketplace in the world", you will find many impressive half-timbered houses reconstructed after the war.

The university town of Hildesheim is located on the Innerste, a tributary of the Leine, and is the smallest city in Lower Saxony, with about 103,000 inhabitants. Only 15 minutes away is the largest exhibition grounds in the world in Hanover, it takes about 30 minutes by car to get to the international Hanover airport. Hildesheim itself has a small airfield, which is ideal especially for trade fairs.

Hildesheim is a Catholic bishop's seat with over 1000 years of history. In 2010, the city celebrated the 1,000th anniversary of the St. Michael’s Church, which is one of the most beautiful early-romanesque churches in Germany, with its impressive ceiling painting, which represents Christ's brethren. The UNESCO-protected Church of St. Michael’s was built in the Romanesque style in 1022 and reconstructed after the war. Unusual features inside are the alternation of round columns and square pillars as supports, its painted wooden ceiling, a late-12th-century chancel barrier decorated with angels, the cloisters and a crypt containing Bernward, the bishop of Hildesheim from 993 to 1022, who commissioned many artists and strove to make Hildesheim a cultural centre in his day.

St. Mary’s Cathedral: Reopened in 2014 after a painstaking renovation and restoration process, Hildesheim’s Unesco World Heritage–listed Cathedral took its present form in 1061 and was virtually rebuilt after WWII bombing. It’s famous for the almost 5m-high Bernwardstüren, bronze doors with bas-reliefs dating from 1015. These depict scenes from the Bible’s Old and New Testaments. The church’s wheel-shaped chandelier and the Christussäule (Column of Christ) are also from the original cathedral. Be sure to look out for the Tausend-Jähriger Rosenstock (1000-year-old rosebush) located in the cathedral cloister.

Both St. Michael’s and the Cathedral testify to the creative power of Bishop Bernward and fascinate not only as masterpieces of ecclesiastical architecture, but also with their large number of medieval equipment.

There is also much to discover for museum enthusiasts in Hildesheim: A visit to the City Museum is a must, located in the reconstructed Knochenhauerhaus, one of Germany’s most intricate half-timbered houses. Exhibits are spread over five floors, starting with changing exhibitions on the ground floor, leading into the town’s history, and finally a silverware collection on the top floor; the Cathedral Museum with its cathedral treasury, reopened in 2015 after a five-year renovation and expansion process, engages museum showcases 1000 years of church history in the cloisters of World Heritage-listed St. Mary’s Cathedral. Its permanent exhibition explores church-life and religious history 'From the Middle Ages to the Modern', including a priceless, rare collection of treasures, reliquaries and artifacts; or the Roemer and Pelizaeus Museum, which is one of the most important collections of European collections of ancient Egypt, is also recommended.

Numerous parks or gardens, such as the Magdalen’s Garden, one of the oldest monastic gardens in Lower Saxony, amaze visitors who prefer to enjoy in the peaceful environment. Particularly beautiful is the Rosarium with more than 1,500 rose bushes. A tourist attraction of the city is "The Hildesheimer", a liqueur made from local roses.

 

 

Tuzla

The city of Tuzla is the administrative center and the economic, cultural and educational center of the Tuzla Canton and the economic-geographic region of northeastern Bosnia. Tuzla is predominantly an industrial city, the center of the municipality of the same name and the Tuzla Canton. It is also the economic, cultural, sports and educational center of northeastern Bosnia and Herzegovina, in the valley of Majevica Mountain.

The city is famous for its chemical and motor industry. It is especially known for the great wealth of salt, after which it got its name (from the Turkish language: "greed" means "so"), and this city lies on a large number of salt mines.

Natural resources and rich deposits of energy and mineral resources have been a determining factor in directing the current economic development of this region, and at the same time are an important backbone of future development.

Tuzla has made its special geological history the oldest or one of the oldest settlements in Europe. Namely, much of Europe, in the ancient geological past, represented the bottom of the Pannonian Sea. And the last remains of this must have receded from the present surface 10 million years ago. Just below Tuzla this sea left a trace of 350 million tons of salty rock and salt water. Salt water was raining to the surface, people were processing it in so still in the neolith. They later formed wells, which became more and more modern, and salt water became the basis of the chemical industry in modern Tuzla.

On July 18, 2003, local authorities decided to draw a large amount of salt water to the surface, to the previously prepared bottom, so Tuzla is now the only city in Europe that has a salt lake and the only city in the world whose salt lake is at the same time a bathing place and beach in the narrowest historical city center. The salt water of the Pannonian Lake is allegedly and healing.

Tuzla has a great industrial tradition, based on rich salt and coal deposits.

Today Tuzla is a city of new energy, in recent years it has experienced a great expansion of construction and rapid development.