Every design for Schwäbisch Gmünd

Schwäbisch Gmünd is known as the Stauferstadt, a free imperial city from 1268 until 1802, though locals still often call it simply Gmünd, the name it officially carried until 1934. It is a lively place of learning too, home to the Pädagogische Hochschule Schwäbisch Gmünd and a state school for gifted pupils.

The town lies in a broad stretch of the Rems valley, where the Josefsbach and other brooks join the river, between the wooded heights of the Welzheimer Wald to the north and the foothills of the Swabian Jura to the south. From the edge of town a geological trail climbs the Hohenrechberg, past exposed layers of rock, to its pilgrimage church and castle. Long before any of this, the Romans kept a small fort at the Schirenhof on the frontier of their empire; the Kohortenkastell Schirenhof marks the spot.

Back in the old town, the Heilig-Kreuz-Münster, the Johanniskirche and the Fünfknopfturm make up the view you would recognise anywhere. On a shirt, they turn a map of Gmünd into a picture of home.