Free Imperial City of Weissenburg

Origins

Weissenburg lies beside the Roman fort of Biriciana on the Raetian limes. A Carolingian royal estate stood there, and Charlemagne's attempted canal between the Rhine and Danube basins, the Fossa Carolina, lay nearby. The town was a royal possession of the Hohenstaufen and by the end of the 13th century counted as a free imperial city.

Rule and society

A council of burghers governed the town and its small territory. Its economy rested on crafts, traffic on the road from Nuremberg to Augsburg and the stone quarries of the Franconian Jura. The city adopted the Lutheran Reformation and belonged to the Franconian Circle. Above it stood the Wülzburg fortress, held by the margraves of the Principality of Brandenburg-Ansbach, its constant rivals.

Decline and legacy

Weissenburg was occupied by Bavaria in 1802 and formally annexed in 1803 under the mediatisation of the imperial cities. It is now Weißenburg in Bayern, known for its Roman baths and a hoard of Roman treasure found there in 1979.