Frankenberg, Hesse

Frankenberg, Hesse

Frankenberg an der Eder is a town in Waldeck-Frankenberg district in Hesse, Germany.

The mountain at a ford over the Eder north of the Burgwald range was for a long time a fortified place, playing an especially important rôle under the Franks in the Saxon Wars. The current town was built in 1233-1234 by the Thuringian Landgrave and quickly earned economic importance for its location at the junction of two trade routes.

In a fire on 9 May 1476, about which the Frankenberg chronicler Wigand Gerstenberg compiled a detailed description, the town was almost utterly destroyed. Built anew in the 16th century, the town never did recover its former importance.

The downtown core consists of the renovated Old Town and the likewise renovated New Town with many half-timbered houses.