Aschaffenburg

Aschaffenburg lies on the Main at the western edge of the Spessart hills. Its name recalls a castle beside the river Aschaff. A religious community established here became the collegiate foundation of Saints Peter and Alexander in the tenth century. The town came under the archbishops of Mainz in 982, and Archbishop Willigis made it a second residence; a stone bridge over the Main is also attributed to him.

Aschaffenburg remained a seat of the archbishops for centuries. An imperial assembly held here in 1447 approved an agreement later known as the Concordat of Aschaffenburg, a step towards the settlement reached at Vienna. In the German Peasants' War of 1525, the town supported the rebels and shared their defeat. Its position on the Main kept it connected to the lands of the archbishopric beyond the wooded Spessart.