Eschwege

Eschwege stands on the Werra, near an old ford on the road into Thuringia. A Frankish royal court guarded the crossing, and in 974 Emperor Otto II granted the court and settlement to his wife Theophanu. Her daughter Sophia founded a community of canonesses on the Cyriakusberg. Its tower survived the later dissolution of the foundation. Market and town rights followed in the twelfth and thirteenth centuries, and cloth and leatherworking became important local trades.

The town passed to Hesse during the Thuringian-Hessian succession struggle. Landgrave Balthasar of Thuringia built a castle here in 1386, but Eschwege returned to Hesse in 1433. Its castle later became a residence for branches of the Hessian ruling house. Imperial troops sacked and burned much of the town in 1637 during the Thirty Years' War.