Following an outbreak of the Black Death in 1349, a Christian pogrom against the Jewish inhabitants of Nuremberg took place, and they were expelled from the city.

[1] Emperor Charles IV ordered the synagogue of Nuremberg to be destroyed to make way for the development of the grand market (Hauptmarkt), at which also a church was to be built on the rubble.

Emperor Charles IV wanted to use the Frauenkirche for imperial ceremonies, which is reflected in the porch with the balcony, and in the fact that the church is relatively unadorned except for the coats of arms of the Holy Roman Empire, the seven Electors, the town of Nuremberg, and the city of Rome, where the Holy Roman Emperors were crowned.

Beginning in 1423, the Imperial Regalia were kept permanently in Nuremberg and displayed to the people once a year on a special wooden platform constructed for that purpose.

This restoration involved replacing and repairing surviving sculptures and gathering Medieval art to adorn the church.

The church was almost completely destroyed in the Second World War in the bombing of Nuremberg with only the nave walls and facade remaining.

The west facade of the Frauenkirche is richly decorated with a central porch creating a narthex and an elaborate projection above flanked by two engaged stair towers.

Within the narthex, the ribs are completely decorated with sculptures and the main entry to the church features a tympanum showing the Nativity.

Surviving remnants include: a stone sculpture cycle from around 1360 in the choir (including adoration of the kings and St. Wenceslas; an Annunciation angel and candlestick angel from the school of Veit Stoss (early 16th century); remains of the first high altar table around 1400 (the painted panels are today in the Germanic National Museum in Nuremberg and in Frankfurt's Städel Museum); and several terracotta sculptures, some of which are in the Prague National Gallery.

The successor on the high altar, the so-called "Catfish" retable from the early 16th century, is only preserved in fragments today (in the Germanic National Museum).

The famous “Nuremberg Tonapostel” from around 1400 was originally in the Frauenkirche and is divided between the German National Museum and St. James Church.

The church building appears in the background of a scene in Leni Riefenstahl's 1935 propaganda film Triumph of the Will in which Adolf Hitler receives salutes from Nazi troops as they march through the center of Nuremberg.