The village of Gelnhausen

Gelnhausen was founded in 1170 by Emperor Frederick I Barbarossa as a free city of the Holy Roman Empire. The charter is dated 25 July 1170. With the granting of the charter Gelnhausen was intended to be a significant component of the imperial land policy pursued by Frederick. He was the first Holy Roman Emperor of the Staufer dynasty. The imperial support permitted the town to develop rapidly into one of the wealthy trading cities of the High Middle Ages. By the middle of the 13th century, Gelnhausen was already one of the cities with the highest tax income of the empire. The first city fortifications were built at this time. Many stone houses were built by the citizens. Numerous churches and monasteries date from this time, not just St Mary’s and St Peter’s. To the south-east of the town Frederick Barbarossa had his imperial palace built in the last third of the 12th century. The positive development of the town only came to an end when it was mortgaged in 1349. Gelnhausen was largely destroyed in the Thirty Years War of 1618 to 1648.