to 804) as the base for Frankish counterattacks far inside the Saxons' territory, earning the Weinstraße new importance as a route of advance, connection and supply. After the Saxons had been subjugated and Christianized, the fortification became redundant. The building works, left as they were to decay, kept alive the memory of the Franks. Town's founding Whether the mountain was further used for living is not known with any certainty. There might have been storage and trading places for travellers and merchants who were passing through town. Only in the early decades of the 13th century does history once again shed light on "the Frankenberg". The Thuringian-Hessian Landgraves were trying to forge a connection between their holdings in Upper Hesse and those in Lower Hesse by somehow getting around the County of Ziegenhain that lay between them. This plan was at odds with what the Archbishops of Mainz, who were, for their part, also expanding, from the west into the Wohra Valley, had in mind. The Landgrave of Thuringia struck back at the Archbishops decisively. Since the Frankenberg had passed to the Landgraves in 1122 and lay in the Vogtei of the Vögte von Keseberg, he chose, right in the middle of the Mainz county of Battenberg, on the boundary between the court regions of Röddenau and Geismar, to build a castle, and furthermore a town, disregarding all of the local lords' objections. On the uppermost peak of the mountain, which fell away steeply on three sides, appeared the castle, commanding the whole middle Eder Valley. Onto this was built a ward, which also enclosed the ecclesiastical area. Right behind this, going by exact plans (as can be seen in the town's layout), the town was built. The mountain ridge and the mountainside that dropped so sharply off to the north were embraced by the great marketplace. Splitting the marketplace in two, with the town hall built at its west end, is something that might have been done sometime later. A further intention can be seen beyond simply making the town into a stronghold. This lay in also giving the town economic strength by using its advantageous location on the trade roads. The new town's people were from the surrounding villages and hamlets, having been resettled in town or, in some cases, having voluntarily moved there. In the course of time, 16 former living places around town were forsaken, but