Mellrichstadt

Mellrichstadt grew in Franconia from a royal estate recorded in the ninth century. In 1078 the nearby Grafenberg saw a battle between supporters of Henry IV and the rival king Rudolf. Town status followed in 1232–33; the town seal of 1273 already shows walls, towers and gates.

From the thirteenth to fifteenth centuries the settlement expanded around the former royal court, incorporating a southern manorial area and the castle to the north. Its elliptical wall enclosed an old town whose main street widened into a marketplace. Later part of the prince-bishopric of Würzburg, Mellrichstadt passed through several changes of rule after secularisation and became Bavarian in 1814.