Hof

Hof lies on the Saale between the Franconian Forest and the Fichtel Mountains. The Via Imperii passed through this upland country, linking markets to the north with Nuremberg and routes towards Italy. The town became part of the lands of the margraves of Brandenburg-Bayreuth.

A fire destroyed many houses in 1625, and during the Thirty Years' War Heinrich Holk's cavalry repeatedly plundered Hof in 1633. The town later offered refuge to Protestants displaced from Austria and Bohemia. In 1683 it gained a regular postal link between Leipzig and Nuremberg, with services to Regensburg and Dresden added in the following decade. Hof passed to Prussia in 1791 and to Bavaria in 1810, after Napoleon's campaigns. Another great fire devastated the town in 1823, destroying nine out of ten buildings.