Landsberg, Lands End

The picturesque town of Landsberg, on the River Lech, was once a major medieval salt route. In the same fashion as Friedberg, it collected salt duties as a source of income and later added river taxes.

Across the river, tucked away amongst trees and bushes, is a medieval fairytale tower called The Mutterturm (Mother Tower). It was built by Bavarian artist Hubert von Herkomer in honour of his mother and served as his art studio in the late 1800s. Built out of solid tuff stone, the grey tower is accented by its conical green and yellow roof, whilst the interior displays his father’s skills at wood carving through the tower’s furniture and fittings, whilst his uncle wove the fabrics. The tower is a museum now exhibiting some of Herkomer’s artworks.

The town is a collection of pastel coloured buildings, but the most impressive is the ornately decorated old town hall. Built in the 1700s, the building is three storeys high with a richly detailed stucco façade. The windows increase in size with each floor, indicating the importance of the rooms behind them. The first two floors display significant paintings by Herkomer, whilst the third floor is a ballroom with frescoes depicting the town’s history.

To the southeast of town is the beautiful Bayertor Tower. It was built in 1425 to impress arriving travellers. Standing at 118ft (36m) tall, the tower provides stunning views of the old town and the Lech valley. The exterior wall is richly decorated with a Gothic crucifixion painting and three coats of arms beneath it, each one representing the three individuals who financed the project.

North of the old town is the Landsberg Shoe Museum, which exhibits traditional shoes spanning eight centuries. The museum opened in 1995, when the owner of the Schuhhaus Pflanz, a family-run shoe business tracing its history to 1625, decided to display the shoes he’d been collecting for more than 40 years. The collection includes silver wedding shoes from Afghanistan, pointed shoes from the Orient, Chinese lotus shoes for women who practised foot binding, and shoes worn by tennis player Steffi Graf, Empress Sisi of Austria, and King Ludwig II of Bavaria. The museum also has the most unique shoehorn collection, which has been entered in the Guinness Book of Records as the largest in the world.