Nuremberg Audio Tours

Nuremberg was first mentioned in 1050 and became a Free Imperial City in the 13th century, which meant it answered only to the Emperor. The Imperial Regalia, the crown and orb and sceptre of the Holy Roman Empire, were kept here from 1424 until 1796. Albrecht Durer lived and worked here, producing the first printed star charts in 1515. Martin Behaim made the first world globe in Nuremberg in 1490. The Christkindlesmarkt, held in the square below the Frauenkirche, has drawn more than a million visitors each year since the 16th century. For a long time the city was synonymous with German Renaissance humanism and prosperity.

Between 1927 and 1938, the Nazi Party held its annual rallies on the Reichsparteitagsgelande, the vast stone-colonnaded grounds southeast of the old town.

Albert Speer designed the infrastructure for those rallies and they drew hundreds of thousands. On January 2, 1945, Allied bombing destroyed approximately 80 percent of the medieval city centre in a single hour, killing 1,800 people. The trials of Nazi war criminals were held here from 1945 to 1946, a choice that was deliberate: this was the city most associated with the regime's self-image, and justice was delivered on its ground.