Landau

Landau lies in the valley of the Queich between the Palatinate Forest and the Rhine plain. Count Emich IV of Leiningen-Landeck founded it about 1260 as a fortified outpost on the plain to guard his castle of Landeck. King Rudolf I of Habsburg gave it town rights in 1274 and imperial status in 1291. In 1324 the town was pledged to the bishop of Speyer, and Maximilian I did not redeem it until 1511. In 1521 Landau joined the Decapolis, the league of ten imperial towns of Alsace.

Since the Peace of Westphalia in 1648 Landau had mostly been a French enclave in the Empire, and the Peace of Nijmegen of 1678 and 1679 confirmed its cession to France. From 1688 to 1691 Vauban made it a fortress, and the medieval town was largely burned; the new town was laid out with straight streets, rectangular blocks and a market square, and the gates were closed at sunset.

In the War of the Spanish Succession it changed hands after costly sieges: imperial troops took it in 1702, the French won it back in 1703, and it was imperial again in 1704. In 1713 Marshal Bezons besieged it from 6 June to 20 August and regained it for France, and the Peace of Rastatt in 1714 confirmed it as Louis XIV's chief gain. In 1815 it passed to Austria as a federal fortress, and in 1816 to Bavaria.