Gelnhausen: Barbarossa Town in the Kinzigtal of Hessen
Gelnhausen lies in the Main-Kinzig-Kreis of Hessen, with about 21,880 inhabitants. Emperor Frederick Barbarossa founded the town in 1170 and built an imperial palace on an island in the Kinzig river. The ruins of this Kaiserpfalz, with its Romanesque arcade hall, are among the best-preserved Staufer-era palace remains in Germany. The Marienkirche, a Gothic church with Romanesque elements, towers over the old town's steep streets.
Frankfurt am Main is roughly 40 kilometres west. Hanau is about 25 kilometres to the northwest. The Kinzig valley narrows here between the Vogelsberg hills to the north and the Spessart forest to the south. The Brothers Grimm collected several of their fairy tales in the Kinzigtal region, and Philipp Reis, the inventor of an early telephone, was born in Gelnhausen in 1834.
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Gelnhausen lies in the Main-Kinzig-Kreis of Hessen, with about 21,880 inhabitants. Emperor Frederick Barbarossa founded the town in 1170 and built an imperial palace on an island in the Kinzig river. The ruins of this Kaiserpfalz, with its Romanesque arcade hall, are among the best-preserved Staufer-era palace remains in Germany. The Marienkirche, a Gothic church with Romanesque elements, towers over the old town's steep streets.
Frankfurt am Main is roughly 40 kilometres west. Hanau is about 25 kilometres to the northwest. The Kinzig valley narrows here between the Vogelsberg hills to the north and the Spessart forest to the south. The Brothers Grimm collected several of their fairy tales in the Kinzigtal region, and Philipp Reis, the inventor of an early telephone, was born in Gelnhausen in 1834.
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