Schwäbisch Hall

Schwäbisch Hall is a city of 42,000 people (2022) in the valley of the Kocher river in Baden-Württemberg, Germany. The city's main landmarks are the market square with St Michael's Church, Comburg Castle (a former Benedictine monastery) with St Nicholas' Church, and the Hallian-Franconian Museum, dedicated to the art and history of Schwäbisch Hall and surrounding Heilbronn-Franconia.

Understand

Schwäbisch Hall, closeup to St. Michael's Church

Schwabisch Hall was founded by the Celts, but got its current name from the name for Swabia, and Hall for "drying something by heating it", likely due to the salt production that was the mainstay of the town. It grew prosperous with salt and in its power to mint its own currency. It therefore has many buildings from the Middle Ages, most intact since after the Thirty Years' War the town declined in power, so the latest buildings in the old town are from the Baroque period, replacing those burned in the last major fire the city had in 1728.

In more modern times Schwäbisch Hall is a household name mostly due to the Bausparkasse (building society) headquartered there and named after the town. Another claim to fame is American Football team, that produced the first European to be drafted without playing College Football in North America.

Get in

By car

Schwabisch Hall is two hours from Frankfurt taking the A6 highway, two hours away from Strasbourg via both A5 and A6 roads, one hour away from Stuttgart via A81 and A6 highway, two and a half hours from Munich via A9 and A6, three hours from Zurich via A81, four hours from Prague via E50 and A6, and five hours from Berlin via A9.

By train

• 1 Schwäbisch Hall-Hessental station. A bit out of the way in the annexed suburb of Hessental, but the busier of the two stations.  
• 2 Schwäbisch Hall station. More centrally located, but not the more important station in terms of traffic  

There are regional trains from Crailsheim and Nürnberg.

By bus

See also: Intercity buses in Germany

Get around

The old town is split between an upper town, which includes the town square and St. Michael's Church, and the lower town, by the river, where there is a Biergarten, more old town, and the Wurth Collection. They are connected by medieval stone stairways between buildings.

See

Rathaus (Town Hall)

If you go in the summer, you may see theatre in the town square on the steps of St. Michael's Church, or in the temporary Globe Theatre next to the Biergarten. However much of what to see is simply a medieval town, as well as the baroque town square.

• 1 St. Michael's church. A medieval Lutheran Church in front of the town square, or market square.  
• medieval fountain to St. George and St. Michael. 
• Municipal museum. It explains the history of the town well. You can also see people working in the trade that made the town grow in the Middle Ages, salt, boiling it in the traditional way. 
• Wurth medieval art collection. A small but very good collection of German Medieval Art that includes works of Hans Holbein the Younger and the Older. 
• 2 Comburg. A former Benedictine monastery.  
• 3 Kunsthalle Würth. An art museum.  

Do

• The Schwäbisch Hall Unicorns play American Football in the first division German Football League advanced to the German Bowl every year from 2014 to 2019. The regular season runs roughly May-September with the latter half of September and the first half of October comprised of Playoffs culminating in the German Bowl. In 2016 the Unicorns also played in the European big six tournament - as they did in 2015, where they lost the final to Braunschweig. They won four German Bowls 2011, 2012, 2017 and 2018. Their 2017 and 2018 championships were part of a record 50-game winning streak across multiple seasons only ending in their 2019 German Bowl loss.
• 1 Optima Sportpark. Home of the Schwäbisch Hall Unicorns, named for a local packaging company who bought the naming rights.  

Eat

Since it is in the heart of Swabia, Schwabisch Hall has very good Swabian food, with restaurants in all parts of Schwabisch Hall. There are also many good cafes where you can have a good breakfast, and many good bakeries, butchers, pastry shops, and ice cream parlors that sell local cuisine.

Drink

You can get a cheap beer at the Biergarten, and a cheap dinner.

Sleep

• 1 Campingplatz Steinbacher See, Mühlsteige 26, ☏ +49 791 2984. 
• 2 Wohnmobil-Stellplatz Auwiese, Heilbronnerstraße. 
• 3 Naturfreundehaus Lemberghaus, Lemberghaus 1, ☏ +49 791 6740. 
• 4 Hotel Garni Sölch (Der Sölchebäck), Hauffstr. 14, ☏ +49 791 9466466 0. 
• 5 Hotel Scholl, Klosterstraße 2 - 4, ☏ +49 791 9755 0. 
• 6 Hotel-Restaurant Sonneck, Fischweg 2, ☏ +49 791 970670. 
• 7 Ringhotel Die Krone, Wirtsgasse 1, ☏ +49 791 94 030. 
• 8 Ringhotel Hohenlohe, Weilertor 14, ☏ +49 791 75 87 0. 
• 9 Romantik-Hotel "Der Adelshof", Am Markt 12, ☏ +49 791 75 89 0. 
• 10 Hotel zum Hirsch, Sulzdorfer Str. 14, ☏ +49 791 9390220. 

Go next

• Dinkelsbühl,
• Rot an der Rot