Feuchtwangen, Romantic Road

The town of Feuchtwangen can trace its roots back to a Benedictine monastery founded in 819 AD. In 2019, it celebrated its 1200th anniversary.  Feuchtwangen has had a haphazard and disruptive history. Establishing itself as an official town in the late 1100s, Feuchtwangen became a self-governing city within the Holy Roman Empire in the mid-1200s and grew wealthy due to its location along travel routes. This status was short-lived as 130 years later, the town’s ownership was transferred and its self-governance withdrawn.

In the late 1300s, the town was destroyed, and subsequently, a city wall was built with three gates and 14 towers. The town blossomed once again until the early 1500s. Prosperity and peace were curtailed with the onset of the Peasants' War in 1525, followed by the Protestant Reformation in 1533, when the Benedictine monastery, a vital piece of the town’s history, was confiscated. More hardship came with the Thirty Years' War in the early 1600s, including plundering by military forces, and a few years later, Swedish and Imperial forces arrived and took what was left of it.

Moving into the late 1700s, the town was ceded to Prussia, then conquered by the French before being handed over to Bavaria in 1806. Thankfully, by the 19th century, it began to see some stability and peace. Fortunately, during WWII, the town was left intact, even though the neighbouring towns were completely destroyed. By the mid-1900s, the town began to flourish as people who were either expelled or fled from the previously occupied German countries began arriving and settling there.

Fast forward to 2000, and Feuchtwangen became home to the second-largest casino in Bavaria. With a floor space of 4,800 m², the casino’s ultramodern, bluish architecture stands in stark contrast to the town’s historical architecture. The neatly laid out centre of town is beautifully adorned with brightly painted buildings, some with very steeply pitched roofs that run across three storeys, interspersed with half-timbered houses and a central fountain.

Most of the original town wall was demolished in the 19th century to make way for progress. Only one of the original three gates remains standing and has been preserved. The Romanesque cloisters of the Benedictine monastery become the setting for Cloister Plays. Each year since 1948, the cloister has been the backdrop to outdoor theatre productions.