Neuburg has been inhabited since the Bronze Age with artifacts discovered on the hill where the modern palace is located.[3]
A Roman settlement was also located on the high hill overlooking the Danube, providing a part of the Limes, the border between the Empire and its Germanic enemies.[4]
The massive Neuburg Castle was built during the early Middle Ages by the Aiglolfings, at the site of the old Roman fortress. In 1527 the Wittelsbach Family re-designed the castle into a Renaissance palace, which is what we see today.[5]
Neuburg was part of an episcopal see. In the 10th century it passed to the counts of Scheyern and through them to Bavaria, being ceded to the Rhenish Palatinate at the close of a war in 1507. From 1557 to 1742 it was the capital of a small principality ruled by a cadet branch of the family of the elector palatine of the Rhine. This principality of Palatinate-Neuburg had an area of about 2,600 square kilometres (1,000 sq mi) and about 100,000 inhabitants.
During the Thirty Years' War, the city was conquered and occupied several times between 1632 and 1634 during the battles for Regensburg by Swedish troops passing through here, while crossing the Danube.[6]
In 1742 it was united again with the Rhenish Palatinate, with which it passed in 1777 to Bavaria.[7]
In 1806 in became part of firstly Altmühlkreis (its center was Eichstätt) between 1806 and 1808, later Oberdonaukreis (its center was firstly Eichstätt between 1810 and 1817, later Augsburg between 1817 and 1837). It was a rural district center in Schwaben region in 29 November 1837. On 30 June 1972, Neuburg an der Donau became a Grosse Kreisstadt (similar to a county seat) and was passed to Upper Bavaria region.
During the Second World War, Neuburg was bombed by the Allies in April 1943. By late April 1945 the US Army liberated the town from the Nazis.[8]
Main sights
Hofkirche
Neuburg an der Donau has a defensive wall around the old town. The old town contains some well worth seeing institutions and happenings, such as the 'Birdland Jazz Club Neuburg', one of the best locations for jazz auditions in Germany.
Other main sights include the late Renaissance court church Hofkirche (1607/08 built by Josef Heintz), the Town Hall (1603/09), the rococoProvinzialbibliothek (Provincial Library, 1731/32) and the baroque churches of St. Peter (1641/46) and St. Ursula (1700/01). Grünau is a renaissance hunting lodge of Elector Otto Henry, which is situated 7 km further east (built from 1530 onwards).
^Jörg Biel: Vorgeschichtliche Höhensiedlungen in Südwürttemberg-Hohenzollern. Theiss, Stuttgart 1987, ISBN 380620778X, S. 214.
^Volker Bierbrauer: Neuburg. In: Heinrich Beck (Hrsg.): Reallexikon der germanischen Altertumskunde. Band 21, de Gruyter, Berlin 2002, ISBN 3-11-017272-0, S. 106–108; hier: S. 106.
^Reinhard H. Seitz: Die Schloßkapelle zu Neuburg a. d. Donau. Einer der frühesten evangelischen Kirchenräume im Spiegelbild von Reformation und Gegenreformation. Weißenhorn 2016, ISBN 978-3-87437-572-6.
^Peter Engerisser, Pavel Hrnčiřík: Nördlingen 1634. Die Schlacht bei Nördlingen – Wendepunkt des Dreißigjährigen Krieges. Verlag Späthling Weißenstadt 2009, ISBN 978-3-926621-78-8, Pages 29-33.
