Gifhorn is known as the Mühlenstadt (mill town) and there's a good reason for this. The most remarkable tourist attraction in Gifhorn is the International Open-Air Mill Museum, created over the course of the last 20 years. With 15 mills from all over the world it's the biggest attraction in the Gifhorn southern heath region. The splendid Dutch mill "Immanuel“ from 1852 in the entrance area is visible for miles around and is towered over only by the huge gallery mill from the Park Sanssouci in Potsdam. A huge Lower Saxon house with a large ancient oven forms the gastronomic centrepiece of the museum.

Gifhorn nowadays has 45,000 inhabitants and has grown up on the crosswords of the old salt road (Luneburg-Braunschweig) and the corn road (Celle-Magdeburg). The town lies at the centre of a varied water and walking area, where the rivers Aller, Ise and a side channel of the Elbe meet. A popular goal for nature lovers is the Gifhorn heathland, where Hermann Löns was a popular guest for many years.

The landscape of the Gifhorn Southern Heathland

The beautiful old town offers modern shopping facilities behind a historic facade and earthy restaurants and cafés invite you to dawdle. Sites of interest include the beautiful half-timbered houses and the renaissance castle of the Guelph dukes, in which the history of the area is displayed on three stories. And it's not far to such interesting towns and cities as Hanover, Braunschweig, Wolfsburg, Helmstedt, Celle and Luneburg.

Wide, rolling countryside with woodland, moorland and heathland areas, lakes and river courses, such as the Aller glacial valley are what you can expect from the Gifhorn southern heath. The heathland in Winkel or Wahrenholz is simply wonderful for walking, especially when the heath is in bloom and it is a unique sanctuary for flora and fauna. A nature trail leads through the most beautiful parts of the Gifhorn heathland. Other heathland areas in the southern heathland include the Schnucken heath in Repke, Schweimker Heath and Bokeler Heath.

Carved by the last ice age, the Gifhorn southern heath region has a variety of landscapes worth conserving. The area is characterised by rivers and lakes, moorland and heath and the space of the woods. The river landscape of the Aller glacial valley offers a colourful range of natural spatial contrasts and is nowadays largely a nature and environmental reserve. Important trade routes, such as the salt road from Braunschweig to Luneburg or the corn road from Magdeburg to Celle, ran along a chain of dry dunes. The heath and district administrative town of Gifhorn was at the intersection of these two important trade routes and its economic developed is consequently very ancient.

Gifhorn International Wind and Water Mill Museum

A breath of romance is tangible on a visit to the unique international mill museum in Gifhorn. There are currently 12 original mills on the museum's approx 100,000 square metres of open land, and not just from Germany. The mills are international ranging from an original copy of the historic "Galerieholländer" mill from Park Sanssouci to an original Korean watermill which was erected in the museum in 2003. At the edge of the park, on a hill, there is an interesting Russian orthodox wooden church, in which services are held regularly.

Famous miniatures in the exhibition hall

Smaller, but no less impressive, are the 45 wind and water mill models on display in the exhibition hall. The famous "Moulin de la Galette“ at Montmatre in Paris can be admired here, as can the mill from "La Mancha“ in Spain, against the sails of which Don Quixote is said to have fought in vain.

Opening times:
During summer: 15.3.-31.10. daily 10am - 6pm,
Closed during winter 1.11 - 14.3.

• http://www.muehlenmuseum.de (German)

"Die BRÜCKE“ cultural institute

In September 1996, Mikhail Gorbachov became patron of the European Institute for the Promotion of Russian and International Handcrafts in Gifhorn. This is a property built in a traditional Russian architectural style. The 50 golden domes, representing 50 years of peace in Germany, are particularly impressive.

Once the cultural institute has been completed, 40 talented artisans from Russia are to be trained here each year. The Gorbachov Foundation will help select the talented artisans. People from different cultures will get to know each other in the cultural institute through common artistic endeavour. The cultural institute represents a BRIDGE (BRÜCKE) between the peoples of Europe.

Vocational training courses in artisanal metalworking, bell casting, artistic printing, the painting of icons and other similar disciplines are planned. The skilled craftworkers will return to Russia after one year and set up businesses in their homeland, to give their families security. The initiators of the project see this as a contribution to stability in the East. The whole will be rounded off with a Russian restaurant and the sale of handcraft products. For visitors to Gifhorn the view is already an event.

• More information on "Die Brücke" (German or Russian)

Sheep Powered Heath Care – The Heidschnucke Moorland Sheep

The open heathland has been created over the last few centuries by woodland clearance and subsequent removal of the topsoil. This process was called "plaggen" or "plaggenhieb". Heathland plants such as heather, cross leaved heath, the insect-eating sundew and many others sprouted on the heathland soil exposed by the "plaggen". These barren areas are now grazed by sheep and are used for beekeeping during the flowering period in August.

The renaturation of the heathland areas

The Gifhorn southern heath region still has a sheep breeder with a herd of almost 400 Heidschnucke moorland sheep. Rosemarie Saak's "Schäferei Am Allertal“ (sheep farm in the Aller valley) maintains the Gifhorn southern heath in a near natural state. The herd is watched over and accompanied by a shepherd and his sheepdogs. The Heidschnucke sheep keep down excessive grass thereby giving heathland plants a competitive advantage. Sheep also eat the tips of the heather and thus make a contribution to their thick growth and regeneration, helping create the right conditions for many animals which inhabit open land, such as lizards and occasionally grasshoppers.

And of course they also make delicious lamb chops. Visitors to the heathland area also have the opportunity to experience historic forms of land use and rare pet breeds at first hand.

Highlights

• International open-air mill museum
• Russian orthodox wooden church
• “Die Brücke” cultural institute
• Renaissance castle Gifhorn
• Castle chapel
• Historic museum
• Kavalierhaus: renaissance guesthouse
• Café with panoramic view in the water tower (90 m above sea level)
• St. Nicolai church (protestant baroque)
• Gifhorn heath with moorland sheep herd

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