RAVENSBURG

Ravensburg "The city of towers and gates" is situated between Lake Constance and Allgaeu in a scenic landscape with a view of the Alps. In the past, the city was a major, medieval commercial centre. In the Middle Ages, it was an Imperial Free City and an important trading centre. The "Great Ravensburg Trading Society" (Große Ravensburger Handelsgesellschaft) owned shops and trading companies all over Europe. The historic town centre is still very much intact, including three town gates and over 10 towers of the medieval fortification. Today, with its 50,000 residents, it is the lively, economic hub of Upper Swabia in Southern Germany, capital of the district of Ravensburg, Baden-Württemberg.

Rising high above the roofs of Ravensburg, the Blaserturm marks the town’s centre. From the top of the tower, visitors can enjoy breathtaking views of the surrounding countryside as far as Lake Constance and the Alps or look down on the brightly coloured roofs of the old town below. Down on the town’s main square Marienplatz, the narrow streets and alleys round about teem with life. People stroll through the traffic-free square or relax in one of the many street cafés. It is a colourful pageant in which people lingering at leisure mingle with the hustle and bustle of everyday life. In the warm months of the year, Ravensburg exudes a Mediterranean flair.
The town's most popular festival is the "Rutenfest" in mid year.

Ravensburg was first mentioned in writing in 1088. It was founded by the Welfs, a Frankish dynasty in Swabia who became later Dukes of Bavaria and Saxony and who made the castle of Ravensburg their ancestral seat.

The "Great Ravensburg Trading Society" (Große Ravensburger Handelsgesellschaft) was founded at Ravensburg and Konstanz around 1380 by the merchant families of Humpis (from Ravensburg), Mötteli (from Buchhorn, modern-day Friedrichshafen) and Muntprat (from Constance).

Following the Reformation a "paritetic" government emerged, meaning an equal distribution of public offices between the Catholic and Protestant confession. The city council was one half each Protestant and Catholic. For some time there was even a Catholic and a Protestant mayor at the same time, and the both confessions celebrated the village fair, the "Rutenfest", apart of each other.

During the World War II Ravensburg was strategically of no relevance. Ravensburg didn't harbour any noteworthy arms industry (unlike the nearby Friedrichshafen with its large aircraft industry), but a big aid supplies center belonging to the Swiss Red Cross. So no air raid destroyed the historical city center. In the 1980s, the Old Town was renovated and all transit traffic was banned from the city center.

http://www.ravensburg.de/rv/english/index.php?lg=en
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ravensburg