Frankenberg

Frankenberg stands above the Eder in the Hessian uplands. The town and castle founded by Conrad of Thuringia in 1233–34 helped the landgraves oppose the expansion of Mainz. A new town was added below the hill in 1335. Its inhabitants had their own administration, while remaining dependent on the older town for justice and church affairs; the two communities were united in 1556.

Fire repeatedly transformed this urban landscape. On 9 May 1476, both the old and new towns burned, and the Liebfrauenkirche was gutted. Rebuilding began promptly, but another fire destroyed half the new town in 1507. Practical improvements accompanied reconstruction: in 1502 a water-lifting installation at the lower mill began pumping Eder water uphill into public basins. Between 1509 and 1513, craftsmen erected the third town hall, with a market hall linking the upper and lower marketplaces and a roof crowned by ten pointed towers. Trade, civic government and the management of water thus occupied the same compact hillside town.