Rothenburg

Rothenburg was a free imperial city above the Tauber in Franconia, made free by Rudolf of Habsburg in 1274. Its pilgrimages and annual fairs helped make it one of the Empire’s largest cities in the fourteenth century.

An earthquake destroyed the old castle in 1356. Rothenburg joined the Peasants’ War in 1525 and was punished by Casimir of Kulmbach; its council introduced the Reformation in 1544. Tilly’s army stormed the city in 1631, and plague followed in 1634. Rothenburg passed to Bavaria in 1803.