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The arch bishops/electors of Mainz made Aschaffenburg their second residence and left a splendid monument of the late renaissance, Johannisburg Castle. King Ludwig I of Bavaria loved the city because of its mild climate and offered it the Pompejanum.
In its more than 1000 year old history two representative buildings have been Aschaffenburg's most outstanding cultural assets. The Stiftskirche, built around 974, was later the center of the main convent of Mainz and the second residence of the archbishops/electors as well as Johannisburg Castle, which was constructed from 1605 to 1614/19.
Out of the former "Royal Property" with ancient "Refuge Fortress", in Saxony's posession since the 9th century, Duke Liudolf of Swabia founded the Aschaffenburg convent of St. Peter in 975, from the 12th century St. Peter and Alexander; towards the end of the 10th century the archbishopric Mainz under archbishop and Reicherskanzler Willigis became its owner.
Starting point of the upper city - already called "civitas" before the turn of the millenium - was a small triangular elevation between Main, Löhergraben, Landing and Schloßgraben as well as the first wooden bridge across the Main, built in 987/989. As an important trading post, situated at the old trading road through the Maingau starting east of Francfort up to the Rhine, Aschaffenburg now had the character of a settlement. Around 1122 it was re-fortified by archbishop Adalbert I. of Saarbrücken.
From the 12th century onwards the upper town finally started to expand outside its existing fortifications, the re-building of the fortress began and Aschaffenburg was awarded the privilege of holding a market (1144), the privilege to mint (1155) as well as the freedom of the city (1161/1173), a down-town developed due to these privileges. As the second residence of the archbishops/electors of Mainz, as center of the arch deaconery of Mainz with its medieval walls, towers, gates and moats the city became one of the most relevant bastions of the arch-bishopric in the 14th century.
After a passing provincial status in the 17th century, it was towards the end of the 18th century when Friedrich Carl Joseph von Erthal and Carl Theodor von Dalberg lead, after the dissolution of the electoral state of Mainz in 1803, the foundation of the principality of Aschaffenburg (1803-1810) as well as the grand duchy Francfort (1810-1813), Aschaffenburg to a new cultural and economic "hey day" in the early 19th century. First Erthal had the parks Schönbusch, Schöntal, Fasanerie and the Schloßgarten built, following the examples of English landscape-gardens. Since the first third of the 18th century these gardens convey the feeling of nature which their most important representative, Jean Jaques Rousseau, propagated. In addition to the historic buildings, citizens and visitors have enjoyed the relaxing places the public parks have to offer. Erthal`s successor, at the same time the last archbishop/elector of Mainz, prince primas of the Rheinbund, later grand duke, Carl Theodor von Dalberg, gifted literary man and politician, promoted especially the educational sector, founded the Karlsuniversität and the theater and brought well-known artits to his court.
After the end of the Napoleonian wars, the dissolution of the central administration and the loss of several authorities and educational establishments (university), Aschaffenburg became part of the Bavarian Crown. The result was a short-termed political, economic and cultural descent. Only with the Deutsche Zollverein (1834), the connection to the railway system (1854) and the development of an efficient industry in the second half of the 19th century (gentlemen's outer garments, paper and cellulose, motors and steering wheels, measuring tools) did the city return to its traditional economic, political and cultural importance.
The vast destructions of 1944/45 in the ancient town center and the quarter Damm could mostly be made forgotten thanks to the help of all citizens in the phase of reconstruction. New, enlarged living space was created, the economic and industrial potential grew with the increasing requirements. The preservation of monuments and the reconstruction of the historic city center have been carried out with special care, although a few "sins" could not be avoided. A new way of thinking concering construction was, for example, shown with the new construction of the town hall in the fifties in the neo-classicist style. Allowance was made for modern architecture with different public and private buildings, for example a modern school-center; residential and sports-areas; new industrial and trade buildings; as well as the City Galerie, and Aschaffenburg's shopping center in the heart of the city. By building the Stadthalle and the Unterfrankenhalle in 1991 Aschaffenburg and its inhabitants, by now 67.000, have reached supra-regional importance as a site for conferences and events. Not to be overlooked are also the many sports facilities, especially the modern stadium "Schönbusch".
In the meantime the "gateway to the Spessart", the "bridge to Rhineland culture" or the "Bavarian Nice", as King Ludwig I of Bavaria supossedly once said, has become the center of the Untermain-region again. It can maintain with the tasks of the present […] in the nuclear age, without forgetting the powers that flow especially to this city from a rich historic and artistic past.
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