Gladbach

Gladbach grew around the abbey founded in 974 by Gero, Archbishop of Cologne, and the monk Sandrad. In the twelfth century the monks established a market north of the church, attracting craftsmen to the settlement. Gladbach received its town charter in 1364–1366, and its citizens built and maintained a stone wall. The town belonged to the Duchy of Jülich until the end of the eighteenth century.

French revolutionary troops entered Gladbach in October 1794, a day before the nearby fortress of Jülich was surrendered. Under French rule the abbey was suppressed, and its last monks left in 1802; the monastery's celebrated library was scattered or destroyed. After the Napoleonic Wars, Gladbach passed to Prussia in 1815. Its later name, Mönchengladbach, recalls the monks who had shaped its beginnings.