Nuremberg

Nuremberg is a city in Franconia, in northern Bavaria, Germany, on both banks of the Pegnitz River. Its old town lies inside walls with round towers and is crowned by the Kaiserburg, the castle of the Holy Roman emperors.

Nuremberg first appears in a written record in 1050, as a royal estate below the castle rock. The emperors made it a free imperial city, and the crown, orb and sword of the Holy Roman Empire were kept there from the 15th century until the end of the 18th. Craft guilds made it known for metalwork, clocks and scientific instruments in the late Middle Ages. The first German railway ran from Nuremberg to Fürth in 1835, and the old town was rebuilt in its medieval form after it was destroyed in the 1940s.

The Kaiserburg stands on a sandstone ridge above the old town, with its Sinwell Tower and a deep well cut into the rock. Albrecht Dürer was born in Nuremberg in the 15th century and painted his best-known self-portraits there. The Germanisches Nationalmuseum holds the globe of Martin Behaim, the oldest surviving globe of the Earth. The Christkindlesmarkt fills the main market square with wooden stalls during Advent, and Nuremberg Lebkuchen, a spiced gingerbread, is sold there.

DATEV, a software cooperative for tax advisers, has its headquarters in Nuremberg. GfK, the market research company, was set up by professors at the city's commercial college and is still based there. The Spielwarenmesse, held each winter in the exhibition center, gathers toy makers from many countries, and Nürnberger Versicherung, the insurer, keeps its head office in the city.