Holzminden

Holzminden grew beside the Weser, where the counts of Everstein built a castle around 1200 and established a town in its shelter. Count Otto confirmed its rights in a charter of 1245. The river linked the settlement to other communities along the Weser, while the nearby Solling woods lay to the east. In 1640, during the Thirty Years' War, imperial troops destroyed and burned Holzminden. Recovery was slow, and for a long time afterwards it remained a small provincial town of farmers and householders.