Franconia's medieval capital — Nuremberger bratwurst, the world's most famous Christmas market, lebkuchen, and the trial that defined international law
Nuremberg (Nürnberg, population 525,000, Bavaria) is Germany's most historically layered medieval city — a walled city on the Pegnitz River that was one of the Holy Roman Empire's most powerful free cities from the 13th to 17th centuries, the center of the German Renaissance (Albrecht Dürer was born here in 1471), the site of the Nazi Party's annual rallies (1933–1938), and the city where the Nuremberg Trials (1945–1946) established crimes against humanity as a category in international law. The food culture is Franconian: Nuremberger Rostbratwurst (the smallest protected-designation sausage…
Nuremberg received its city charter in 1219 and became one of the most important free imperial cities in the Holy Roman Empire — directly under the Emperor, free from feudal obligations, and consequently one of the wealthiest trading cities in German-speaking Europe. Albrecht Dürer (1471–1528) made Nuremberg the center of the German Renaissance. The Nazi Party chose Nuremberg as the site of its annual Reichsparteitage rallies (1933–1938) specifically because of its symbolic weight as the center of the medieval Holy Roman Empire — Albert Speer designed the Zeppelin Field to hold 100,000 partic…