Halle, Saxony-Anhalt

View of the Market Square with Roter Turm and Marktkirche in Halle, Saxony-Anhalt, Germany
Source: https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Hallemarktroterturm.jpg
Author: ContactNi


Halle is the biggest city in the state of Saxony-Anhalt in eastern Germany. It covers 135 sq km (52 sq mi) and has a population of 234,000 people (2012 estimate), narrowly surpassing the state capital Magdeburg by just about a couple thousand people. The city is also called Halle an der Saale or simply Saale, after the river that flows through it. This is also to distinguish it from another town of the same name in North Rhine-Westphalia.

The name Halle is derived from a Celtic word for salt. The area has been harvesting salt since the Bronze Age, as far back as 2,300 BC. Even the river Saale was named after the Germanic root for salt. The famous composer George Frideric Handel was born here in 1685.

During the Second World War, the Nazis had a concentration camp here filled with prisoners from Poland, Czechoslovakia, the Soviet Union, France and the Netherlands, among others. These prisoners were used as slave laborers for the aircraft industry.

Handel House, Halle
Source: https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Halle_H%C3%A4ndelhaus_2012.jpg
Author: Andreas Praefcke


After the war, Halle served briefly as the capital of the East German region of Saxony-Anhalt before it was abolished in 1954. When the state of Saxony-Anhalt was reestablished following reunification, it lost to Magdeburg the position as state capital.

How to go to Halle

The Leipzig/Halle Airport (LEJ) is located 30 km from Halle. As the biggest airport in eastern Germany after those in Berlin, it receives flights from many cities including Antalya, Bourgas, Brussels, Cologne/Bonn, Corfu, Djerba, Dubrovnik, Düsseldorf, Faro, Frankfurt, Fuerteventura, Funchal, Heraklion, Hurghada, Ibiza, Kos, Lanzarote, Las Palmas de Gran Canaria, Larnaca, Luxor, Malaga, Malta, Monastir, Munich, Nuremberg, Palma de Mallorca, Paris, Rhodes, Split, Stuttgart, Tenerife, Thessaloniki, Varna and Vienna.

There are train services to Halle from Leipzig (25 min), Magdeburg (50 min), Erfurt (80 min), Jena (75 min), Weimar (60 min), Dessau (50 min), Potsdam (2 hours) and Berlin (75 min).

If you are going there by car from Berlin, take Autobahn 9 until Schkeuditz, then north on Autobahn 14.

The inner courtyard of Moritzburg in Halle
Source: https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Innenhof_der_Moritzburg,_Ostseite.jpg
Author: Spazierschreiberin

Places of Interest in Halle

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