What’s great about the power of the pen (keyboard), is I have the power to inform.
Take the town of Biesenthal in Brandenburg, for example. Just 31 km northeast of Berlin, I could simply write this page extolling all the virtues about just Biesenthal, but (and that’s a mighty big but) if I left out telling you the rest of the villages in the collective municipality of Biesenthal-Barnim, I’d be doing everyone a major injustice.
Before you say anything, yes, a collective municipality means each place does retain its own (what’s the right word here) — autonomy, but maybe you should consider them when coming to a place like Biesenthal, the largest town in Amt Biesenthal-Barnim.
That being said, Biesenthal is quite lovely in its own right. The gorgeous half-timbered Altes Rathaus (Old Town Hall) from 1762 awaits, as does the New Town Hall built over a hundred years later.
However, of all of the town’s sites, it was the Evangelical Church that won me over. It’s a simple building of stone with a red tiled roof — and you can just feel how old it is without ever having to go inside.
Visiting the Heimatmuseum (Local History Museum) is another way of finding out just how old the place really is — right back to its days of being a Slavic Settlement at one time.
One can’t live by history alone, you have to enjoy the present — and no more so than at one of the many festivals throughout the year. Summer’s the most fun, when the town hosts the Wukenseefest, Youth Rock Fest, and Harvest Festival in the month of August alone. Just as summer’s over, the Street Music Festival is going on in September; and the Christmas Market is something everyone looks forward to late November/early December.
Here’s the good part about the collective municipality, you can enjoy what the other towns have guilt-free. Honestly, if I had to say the best things to see in small Brandenburg villages, it’d probably be the many village churches. The 13th century one in Rüdnitz is quite striking (especially in late autumn for some reason), and the stone village church in Klobbicke stopped me right in my tracks.
It was a debate within on the village church in Sydower Fließ, it had this amazing stone tower bottom — but a much newer brick top. Go see it for yourself, tell me what you think. ;-)
For the really ambitious, see if you can follow along the 416 km long 66-Seen-Wanderweg — a hiking and cycling trail that’ll bring you along 66 lakes right over to Melchow, another town in the municipality. Don’t worry about getting lost, just follow the big blue dot on a white square signs for it.
See, by telling you about Biesenthal’s collective municipality, I’ve increased its size from 60 square kilometers to over 197 square kilometers, doubling its population to over 11,000, and I’ve increased all the wonderful things you’ll find in between them.