In the historic town of Dinkelsbühl in Central Franconia, southern Germany

 The Romantic Road is a route devised by travel agents in the 1950s in the south of Germany, specifically in Bavaria and Baden-Württemberg, linking a number of attractive towns and castles. In medieval times, part of it was a trade route that connected the center of Germany with the south. Today, this region is considered by many to possess "quintessentially German" scenery and culture, in towns and cities such as Nördlingen, Dinkelsbühl and Rothenburg ob der Tauber -- and in castles such as Burg Harburg and the famous Neuschwanstein.

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(in Dinkelsbühl, once a free imperial city of the Holy Roman Empire) Dinkelsbühl lies near the western edge of the district of Ansbach, north of Aalen, on the northern part of the Romantic Road, and is one of three striking historic towns on that part of the route, the others being Rothenburg ob der Tauber and Nördlingen. Dinkelsbühl lies on the southern edge of the Franconian Heights on the River Wörnitz, which rises in the town of Schillingsfürst. Mentioned in 928, Dinkelsbühl was fortified in the 10th century and became a free imperial city in 1273. It flourished in the 14th and 15th centuries and successfully withstood eight sieges in the Thirty Years’ War, before it fell to Gustav II Adolf of Sweden in 1632. The 10th-century walls, along with a moat and 12th-century towers, still surround the city, thus preserving its medieval character and providing one basis for a thriving tourist trade. Notable landmarks include the late Gothic Church of St. George (shown here), the old castle of the Teutonic Order, the fortified town mill, and the Deutsche Haus (a 14th–15th-century mansion, with a Renaissance facade).

Fortified by Emperor Henry V, in 1305 Dinkelsbühl received the same municipal rights as Ulm, and in 1351 was raised to the position of a Free Imperial City. Its municipal code, the Dinkelsbühler Recht, published in 1536, contained a very extensive collection of public and private laws.

+ During the Protestant Reformation, Dinkelsbühl was notable for becoming (eventually along with Ravensburg, Augsburg, and Biberach an der Riß0 – a Bi-confessional (i.e. roughly equal numbers of Roman Catholics and Protestant citizens, with equal rights) This status ended in 1802, when these cities were annexed by the Kingdom of Bavaria. Around 1534, the majority of the population of Dinkelsbühl became Protestant.

+ Every summer Dinkelsbühl celebrates its surrender to Swedish troops in 1632 during the Thirty Years' War. This historical event is called the "Kinderzeche" (derived from the two German words for "child" and "the bill for food and drink in an inn'); it relates to a legend that a child saved the town from massacre by the Swedes. The legend tells that when the Swedish army besieged the town, a teenage girl took the children to the Swedish general to beg for mercy. (He had recently lost his young son to illness, and a boy who approached him so closely resembled his own son that he decided to spare the town.