Straubing

Straubing stands on the Danube in Lower Bavaria, beside the fertile Gäuboden. In 1353 it became the capital of the Wittelsbach duchy of Bavaria-Straubing, whose rulers also held lands in the Low Countries. After that branch ended in 1425, an inheritance settlement assigned the town to Bavaria-Munich. Its town tower, begun in 1316, and St James's church, begun around 1395, mark the prosperity of this ducal period. In 1507 Straubing became the seat of a Bavarian administrative district. The Thirty Years' War brought occupation and plague in 1633, while later eighteenth-century wars and a major fire in 1780 again damaged the town. Its market remained important to the surrounding agricultural country.