Station: [19] The Huguenot Town of Bad Karlshafen

This is what the town of Bad Karlshafen was initially meant to look like, based on original plans drawn up in around 1700. The harbour basin is in the centre, with the rows of houses arranged around it according to a strict geometrical design. The striking symmetry is typical of baroque town layouts and a sign that Bad Karlshafen didn't evolve naturally. 
Landgrave Karl von Hessen-Kassel founded the town as a Huguenot colony in 1699, initially under the name Sieburg. 37 Huguenot families from the South of France became the first residents. They included merchants, manufacturers, textile workers and farming families. People had great hopes of these religious refugees: their labour and artisanal skills were to help Karlshafen to grow into a major trading town for the textile industry. 
The harbour was seen as a significant feature during the planning process. A canal was to be built from here to Kassel, enabling duty-free goods traffic between the two centres. But those ambitious plans never came to fruition. Karlshafen was at great risk of flooding, and the canal project failed. Other features of the model that were never built include the two churches and the semi-circular rows of houses above the harbour basin. 
Until the 1960s, the chapel in the Invalidenhaus served as the only church. In the old days, the three local Protestant congregations met there one after the other for Sunday services: the French Reformed, the German Reformed and the Lutheran congregation.
After the Huguenot physician Jacques Galland discovered a brine spring under a rock in Karlshafen in 1730, the town evolved into a health resort and later took on its current name of Bad Karlshafen. These days, the Wesertherme spa with its indoor and outdoor pools is one of the town's major landmarks. Another is the Huguenot Tower. From this lookout tower on the Hessian Cliffs, there are fantastic views of the town and the River Weser. If you take a look through the telescope by the window on the right, you be able to see the tower from here. 

Foto: © DHG