Aerial view
by SCHICKHARDT, Heinrich II, Photo
Freudenstadt in southwestern Germany lies in the Black Forest, about 65 km southwest of Stuttgart. In 1599 Schickhardt began to draw up a plan for the new town of Freudenstadt (“Town of Joy”), founded as a refuge for Protestants from Salzburg, and intended by the Duke of W�rttemberg as a military and commercial base. Schickhardt designed an ideal town on a grid plan, with the streets intersecting like the lines on a nine men’s morris board-game.
Freudenstadt was severely damaged by fire during World War II. The central city, including the Renaissance arcades in the marketplace and the Evangelical church (1601-08), was rebuilt in its original form.