Barbarossa city
Barbarossastadt is the nickname of five German cities due to shorter or longer stays of the Staufer Emperor Friedrich I. Barbarossa in or near these cities.
Sinzig
Sinzig is a town on the Middle Rhine in the Ahrweiler district . Settled in early history by the Celts and Romans, it was first mentioned in 762 as the Frankish royal court "sentiacum". The city experienced its heyday in the 12th to 14th centuries as an imperial palace , which was often visited by German kings and emperors, four times by Barbarossa. That is why this city is also called "Barbarossa City".
In recent years, the past in Sinzig has been used more touristically than before. This is how the modern version of the "Barbarossa head", which adorns brochures and flags, was created. There is a medieval Barbarossamarkt on the second weekend in September and an Kaisermarkt (Krammarkt) for the Sinziger Kirmes. A “Barbarossamärkchen” is very popular as a discount stamp. Barbarossa pralines, a “Barbarossaelexier” and a red wine “Edition Barbarossa” are further examples of the marketing.
Kaiserslautern
The history of settlement in Kaiserslautern , the industrial and university town on the northern edge of the Palatinate Forest , begins in the early 5th millennium BC. Chr.
Around 1100 Salian rulers had a castle built on the site of today's town hall. Between 1152 and 1158, the Hohenstaufen emperor Friedrich I Barbarossa had this castle expanded into a palace later named after him "with no small splendor". The Lauter donated the water for a mill, a protective ditch and for the castle pond . The castle had solid walls and towers made of red sandstone, it had fine living rooms with wonderful carpets and pictures, a chapel, many ancillary rooms and a large imperial hall. The Kaiserpfalz (also popularly known as Barbarossaburg ) was in the center of Kaiserslautern, directly below the place where the new town hall is today. He made Lautern the center of the Hohenstaufen area of power and the heyday of the settlement began. The imperial palace was first mentioned in 1172 as "castrum domini imperatoris".
In 1176, Emperor Barbarossa founds a hospital ; to its line Prämonstratenser be called to Kaiserslautern. Only the foundations of the late Romanesque parish church built at the time have survived. Construction of the early Gothic choir of today's collegiate church began around 1260.
"The Emperor's Lautern" is known today by the nickname Barbarossastadt .
Gelnhausen
The "Barbarossastadt" Gelnhausen , a town in the Main-Kinzig district in the east of Hesse , was founded in 1170 by Emperor Friedrich I. The location for this establishment was a conveniently located point where the Via Regia , the trade route from Frankfurt am Main to Leipzig crossed with some others. Friedrich founded the city by amalgamating three villages at this point to form the imperial city of Gelnhausen. Imperial trade privileges, such as a duty exemption, quickly led to the settlement of merchants. The stacking rights granted in this context also contributed to the fact that trade in Gelnhausen flourished very quickly. The Kaiserpfalz (also called "Barbarossaburg") was already the scene of an important Reichstag 10 years after the city was founded: Henry the Lion was tried in his absence in 1180 and his lands were redistributed. The imperial palace in Gelnhausen is the best preserved palace from the Staufer period.
Altenburg
Also Altenburg in the east of Thuringia "Barbarossa town" may be called. In 976 Altenburg was first mentioned in a document from Emperor Otto II . In the Kaiserpfalz Altenburg (Castrum Plysn), which was first mentioned in 1132, Kaiser Friedrich I stayed several times between 1165 and 1188. In his presence in 1172, the collegiate church of Our Lady of St. Mary is said to have been consecrated on the hill of the Augustinian Canons monastery, the twin tower of which is red peaks today a landmark of Altenburg.
Bad Frankenhausen
The first settlements of Bad Frankenhausen about 10,000 years ago on the southern edge of the Kyffhauser have been proven by excavations. The place Frankenhausen is mentioned for the first time in the 9th century in documents of the monastery in Fulda as a Franconian settlement. Nearby are the Barbarossa Cave with the "Imperial Throne" and of course the Kyffhäuser Monument (also called "Barbarossa Monument") with the larger than life Emperor "Rotbart", which was built on the ruins of the Kyffhausen Castle between 1890 and 1896. That is why the city is also one of the “Barbarossa cities”, even if it cannot be proven that Barbarossa ever visited Frankenhausen.