Coesfeld

Coesfeld is the capital of the district of Coesfeld in the German state of North Rhine-Westphalia, in the Baumberge area of Munsterland. It received city status in 1197 and was historically a stop on pilgrimage routes to Santiago de Compostela. During the Thirty Years War the prince-bishop Bernhard von Galen expelled foreign troops from the town and established a Way of the Cross procession of eighteen stations that continues today, and the town is also known for the Coesfeld Cross, decorated with silver votive offerings, and for St. Lambert Church with its seventeenth century baroque tower.