Zweibrücken

Zweibrücken grew beside a castle built in a loop of the Schwarzbach, near its meeting with the Hornbach. The castle could be reached by two bridges, from which the town took its name. King Charles IV granted it town rights in 1352, and in 1385 the last count of Zweibrücken sold the town and castle to the Electoral Palatinate. Its position soon gave it a new role as a princely residence.

Count Palatine Stephen inherited the former county in 1410 and combined it with lands inherited by his wife from Veldenz. The resulting Palatinate-Zweibrücken made the town its seat, with the court moving here in 1477. It suffered destruction in 1635 and again in 1677. During a period when the Swedish king Charles XII was also duke, he gave the exiled Polish king Stanislaus Leszczyński refuge at Zweibrücken. A new palace was built in 1720–25. French Revolutionary troops occupied the town in 1793, ending the duchy's independent rule; in 1816 Zweibrücken passed to Bavaria.