Bleichgräben (Historic Moat System) Meiningen

A 2.5 km long path leads along the Bleichgräben around the city center.

On the historic fortifications you can walk on a dam between 2 watercourses. Great! 👍

The moat system known today as "Bleichgräben" was built at the beginning of the 13th century and initially consisted of two moats and a wall. Later a third outer city moat and a second very wide wall, called the "Schütt", were added. The moat system enclosed the city in a semicircle in the south, east and north. The moats are fed by the Mühlgraben, which branches off as a tributary from the Werra to the south of the old town and directs the water into the moats from the southwest corner of the city wall. To the northwest of the old town, the trenches unite in the area of today's castle park to form a small river that flows into the Werra at Volkshausplatz (formerly Am Unteren Rasen). The moat system was given the name "bleaching trenches" from the barchent and linen weaving, with which Meiningen achieved a great economic boom in the high Middle Ages and the numerous master craftsmen had their cloths and fabrics bleached on the ramparts in times of peace. The bleaching trenches also drove the upper mill by the upper gate tower and the lower mill (today the location of the historic waterworks) on the wall in front of the lower gate tower. In the 19th century, the outer third moat was filled. The two remaining bleaching trenches with ramparts are today a ground monument.

Source: de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Meininger_Stadtbefestigung