Every design for Fürth

Germany's first railway ran between Nuremberg and Fürth in 1835, yet the town's name is far older: it comes from the German word for a ford, the river crossing around which the first settlement grew. Fürth is first recorded on 1 November 1007, when Heinrich II gave his property here to the newly founded Bishopric of Bamberg. Today it is the third-largest city in Franconia, so close to Nuremberg that the two centres are only seven kilometres apart.

What sets Fürth apart is the depth of its Jewish history. Jewish families settled here from 1440 and founded their own cemetery and synagogue, and the Jüdisches Museum Franken keeps that story alive. For centuries Fürth was also a town of three masters, shared between Bamberg, Ansbach and Nuremberg until 1792. The churches of St. Michael and St. Peter und Paul, the Stadtmuseum Fürth and the Ludwig Erhard Zentrum stand within its streets, while the Alte Veste gave its name to a battle in 1632.

Then there is the Siebenbogenbrücke, the seven-arched bridge, a crossing in a town named after one. For anyone from Fürth it is the town in a single picture, and reason enough to carry its map.