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BRANDENBURG , the city from which the province takes its name, lies on the main Berlin-Hannover rail line just over 30km west of Potsdam. For all its illustrious past - it was founded by the Slavs in the sixth century, made the seat of a precarious missionary German bishopric in the tenth century, before becoming the capital of the Margravate established by Albert the Bear in 1157 - its more recent history has been a catalogue of misfortunes. These began when the Nazis chose it as the site of a concentration camp; future GDR dictator Erich Honecker served twelve years there, and among those murdered were 10,000 victims of a compulsory euthanasia programme for the mentally handicapped. The Nazis turned Brandenburg's industry - hitherto based on the production of bikes and motor vehicles - over to military purposes, ensuring the city was a prime target for Allied bombers. It was further damaged by the Red Army in 1945, when the defenders mounted a futile last-ditch resistance. After the war, the Communists made it the metropolis for the steel industry their dogma demanded; as a result, the medieval skyline was disfigured by the addition of sixteen smoking chimneys and drab apartment buildings to accommodate its workers. Many historic buildings were left as ruins, while others rotted under the impact of some of the worst air pollution in Europe. Despite all this, Brandenburg still has a great deal to offer, including some magnificent examples of north German brick architecture, and a beautiful natural setting at a point where the broad course of the Havel fashions a wondrous lake-strewn landscape.