Cronheim is situated in the Franconian Lake District (in German: Fränkisches Seenland), approximately seven kilometres west of Gunzenhausen.

The area around Cronheim was already populated in prehistoric and protohistoric time, proven by a circular earthwork in the north and two grave mounds in the south part of the village.

By the 6th century BC, the Hallstatt culture had expanded to include wide territories, falling into two zones, east and west, between them covering much of western and central Europe down to the Alps, and extending into northern Italy.

In the neighboring village Kleinlellenfeld, north west from Cronheim, remains of a Celtic settlement along with a Viereckschanze were found.

After occupying the region for over 150 years, the German tribe Alemanni invaded the area and destroyed the Roman fortress in nearby Gunzenhausen in 241.

Thanks to that still Roman monuments can be marvelled in the "Burgstallwald" in nearby Gunzenhausen and other locations in the region, whereas Alemanni inheritances are rather rare.

After the loss of the Battle of Tolbiac in 496, the Alemanni were partly conquered by Clovis I, leader of the German tribe Franks and incorporated into his dominions along with the Christian religion.

This caused that parts of the Alemanni population moved, under the protectorate of the Ostrogoths emperor Theoderic the Great, further south.

Even after the Alemanni lost the decisive Battle of Tolbiac against their German sister tribe the Franks, they mainly managed to keep their autonomous status.

He exchanged the churches St. Peter and St. Walburg in the village of Stetten for properties in Norsteten (Nordstetten (Gunzenhausen)) with bishop Hildebrand of Möhren.

A Hans Georg of Kronheim is mentioned in a 11 May 1551 document as a witness in a contract between shepherds in the district of the knights of Absperg.

Whether Walpurg von Kronheim, married to the marshal Hugo Vogt of Alten-Sumerau zu Prasberg, was a daughter of Hans Georg, is unclear.

called out the imperial ban on Sir Johann Phillipp von Bimbach the manor went to the emperor who than handed it over to Duke Nikolaus Fugger under the condition that the village has to be catholic "forever".

Already in 1630 Duke Nikolaus Fugger sold the manor to the Prince-Bishop of Eichstätt, Johann Christoph von Westerstetten, with the nickname "Witch Bishop", who than forced the community to become catholic again and banished the Jewish of the village.

In 1652, after the Peace of Westphalia (1648), the Diocese of Eichstätt had to return the manor to its initial owners, the Reichsritters Fuchs von Bimmbach.

The protest of the Prince-Bishop Marquard II Schenk von Castell was rejected and so the manor went to Karl Fuchs as his brother had died in the meantime.

Leisure time facilities such as bike trails, wind-surfing, sailing, hiking and others are making the area very attractive for tourism that since then is growing rapidly.

It shows next to the unresistant history of the castles the challenges of the three religions, Catholics, Protestants and Jewish - "The Three Crowns of Cro(w)nheim".