Bad Wilsnack

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Bad Wilsnack is a town in the Prignitz district, in Brandenburg, Germany. It is situated approximately halfway between Berlin and Hamburg. Since 1928 its has been officially recognised as a spa town, before which time its name was simply Wilsnack since then. Bad Wilsnack is pronounced "But Vilsnuck".

The St. Nicoli church in Bad Wilsnack

It has a very important history as a pilgrimage destination after the town and church were burnt down in the 14th century. It was believed that some hosts were found to be bleeding on the altar and the resultant pilgrimages to see the miraculous hosts went on for some centuries until Martin Luther said they should call it off as a false miracle. The story of the bleeding hosts was depicted in a series of woodcuts in the middle ages. These woodcut images were used on the emergency money issued by the town in the 1920's (Notgeld).

To this day, the city sports a huge church that is much larger than what one would expect for the size of the town.

The pilgrims that came to Wilsnack bought pewter trinkets to indicate that they had reached Wilsnack. These emblems were often in the form of 3 hosts connected together. These turn up in Archaeological digs from around and can also be seen in numerous paintings from medieval times.