A merchant settlement round St Nicholas at the Mulde crossing, where the Bohemian Way (the salt road from Halle and Leipzig to Prague) meets the road from Kraków to southern Germany, beside an older centre round St Mary's in the Sorb district (territorium Zcwickaw) first named in 1118.
Town rights came some time between 1192 and 1212; in 1212 Margrave Dietrich buys out the abbot of Bosau's claims to the town and church, so the margrave is reaching for it, but in 1200 it is a royal place of the Pleissenland.
Who holds it
- Name
- The king (royal reeve or Vogt); the abbey of Bosau claims the town and its church
- Title
- Lord of the place
- Since
- Royal market town by the later 12th century
- Confidence
- medium
Lord in 1200
The king (royal reeve or Vogt); the abbey of Bosau claims the town and its church
How things stand that morning
Royal; the Bosau claims are unresolved.
Charter
Town rights between 1192 and 1212 (not pinned); called oppidum in 1212.
Communities
German merchants; Sorb villages around.
Walls and castle
No castle documented before 1250.
Trade and crafts
Trade on the Bohemian Way and the Kraków road; Mulde crossing.
Where the sources disagree
Evidence: One article; dates bracketed.
Primary sources for Staufen
Chronicles, registers, sagas and inscriptions written in or near 1200 that cover this entry. Each has its own page with editions, translations and where to read it.
- Annals of Marbach (compiled to 1238, the section on 1198 to 1210 written in the early 13th century). Alsatian annals on the Staufen side of the Upper Rhine. Read online
- Annals of Reiner of Saint James, Liège, Reiner of Liège (1197 to 1230, kept year by year). Contemporary annals kept inside Liège. Read online
- Chronicle of Burchard of Ursberg, Burchard of Ursberg (about 1229 to 1230, reworked by Conrad of Lichtenau). Written a generation later by a fierce partisan of the Staufen and a critic of Innocent III. Read online
- Chronicle of Otto of St Blasien, Otto of St Blasien (about 1209 to 1210). A Swabian continuation of Otto of Freising written from the Staufen side. Read online
- Chronicle of Reinhardsbrunn; Chronicle of St Peter's, Erfurt (Erfurt chronicle in the 13th century; Reinhardsbrunn compilation about 1340 to 1349 from older annals). The two Thuringian chronicles. Read online
- Chronicle of the Slavs, by Arnold of Lübeck, Arnold of Lübeck (about 1209 to 1210). Arnold continues Helmold and writes from Lübeck, close to Danish, Welf and Baltic affairs. Read online
- Royal Chronicle of Cologne (in stages from about 1175 to about 1250; the section on 1198 to 1220 written soon after the events). The fullest German narrative of the throne war from the Welf and Cologne side. Read online
- Annals of Jarloch (Gerlach), abbot of Milevsko, Jarloch of Milevsko (about 1200 to 1220). The last Bohemian narrative before 1200, continuing Vincentius of Prague. Read online
23 more in the sources library for The Rhineland, the Low Countries and the Swiss Lands.
Sources and studies
Last revised 4 November 2026. Published 4 November 2026. Suggest a correction on the OMNIA Discord.