Hamelin

Hamelin is a town on the Weser River in Lower Saxony, Germany, with a population of roughly 57,000, and capital of the district of Hameln-Pyrmont. It grew from a monastery founded around 851 AD into a chartered town by the 12th century, and is known worldwide for the legend of the Pied Piper, said to have occurred in 1284, in which a travelling piper rid the town of a rat infestation and, after being refused payment, lured away the town's children with his music, never to be seen again, a tale later popularized internationally through the Brothers Grimm and Robert Browning's 19th century poem.