Free Imperial City of Windsheim

Origins

Windsheim grew from a Frankish royal estate and later belonged to the bishops of Würzburg before returning to the Empire. It was recognised as an imperial city in the mid 13th century, around 1248, on the road between Nuremberg and Würzburg.

Rule and society

The town was governed by a council and lived from farming, wine, crafts and its market. It was surrounded by the lands of the Hohenzollern margraves of Ansbach, on whom it depended for trade and with whom it often quarrelled. Windsheim adopted the Reformation in the 1520s and subscribed to the Augsburg Confession soon after it was presented in 1530.

Decline and legacy

The city lost its freedom when it was annexed by Bavaria in 1802. Its saline springs later made it a spa, renamed Bad Windsheim, and it now hosts the Franconian Open-Air Museum of rural buildings.