Landsberg, Saxony-Anhalt

Landsberg, Saxony-Anhalt

Landsberg is a town in the Saalekreis in the state of Saxony-Anhalt in Germany with about 12,000 inhabitants. Landsberg lies in the Greater Halle area.

The oldest known trace of settlement in what is now Landsberg dates from the New Stone Age. The town's first documentary mention came in 961 as "civitas holm" in a document from Otto I, Holy Roman Emperor. In 1579, Landsberg was granted city rights by the dukes of Saxony.

Visible even far from the town is one of Landsberg's landmarks, the Double Chapel, built in the Romanesque style up on a cliff. It is believed to date from the twelfth century, and once belonged to a castle of which only traces of wall now remain.

Known far beyond Landsberg is the Felsenbad ("Cliff Bath"), a swimming pool complex with diving platforms, a 50-m stretch of competition swimming lanes, and a vast shallow pool where non-swimmers may bathe.

Furthermore, the town is the namesake of the well known – in Germany – Landsberger Gemenge (roughly "Landsberg Batch"), a winter catch crop made out of crimson clover, Italian ryegrass and fodder vetch, which is used as livestock fodder or silage.