Cham

Cham lies on the Regen amid the wooded hills of eastern Bavaria, on an old route toward Bohemia. Benedictine monks from Regensburg founded a religious house at nearby Chammünster in 748, and the royal castle of Camma later guarded the frontier road. The town had a mint around the year 1000 and was moved to its later site during the twelfth or thirteenth century.

Cham's position on the road from Bohemia brought repeated military occupation during the Thirty Years' War, when passing armies demanded money and lodging from its inhabitants. In 1742, during the War of the Austrian Succession, troops under Franz von der Trenck took the town, plundered it for nine days and set it alight. Its historic centre was rebuilt after the destruction.