Schwäbisch Hall

Schwabisch Hall's history runs deep -- salt production here lasted from roughly 500 BCE until 1924, earning the region's product the nickname "white gold" and building the wealth that shaped the town's well-preserved medieval core. The old town, largely spared serious damage in WWII, is a genuine collection of half-timbered buildings, winding alleys, staircases, and covered wooden bridges over the Kocher River. The Marktplatz anchors the town, with St. Michael's Church rising above a dramatic staircase -- the site of a popular open-air theatre festival held on the church steps each summer. The Hallisch-Frankisches Museum covers the town's salt-mining history in detail, and the Kunsthalle Wurth (a well-regarded contemporary art gallery tied to the Wurth company, headquartered here) adds an unexpected modern-art dimension to an otherwise medieval town. Worth knowing for a military-family audience specifically: Schwabisch Hall was home to Dolan Barracks, a US Army post, until it closed in the 1990s -- a genuine, if lesser-known, shared history with the American military community in the region.