Freecastle in the[a] Breisgau; mostly called simply Freiburg) is the fourth-largest city of the German state of Baden-Württemberg after Stuttgart, Mannheim and Karlsruhe.

The city is situated in the major wine-growing region of Baden and, together with Offenburg, serves as a tourist entry-point to the scenic Black Forest.

[5][6] An old university town and archiepiscopal seat, it was incorporated in the early 12th century and soon became a commercial, intellectual and ecclesiastical center for the Upper Rhine region.

small streams), that are fed with water from the Dreisam and run on the side of almost all streets and alleys, giving the city a unique touch.

Freiburg has a high standard of living, and is known for its advanced environmental practices, which is embodied by local housing projects such as the creation of the sustainable district of Vauban.

Frei means "free", and Burg, like the modern English word "borough", was used in those days for an incorporated city or town, usually one with some degree of autonomy.

At about that time, under the rule of Bertold V, the last duke of Zähringen, the city began construction of its Freiburg Minster cathedral on the site of an older parish church.

Egino II raised taxes and sought to limit the citizens' freedom, after which the Freiburgers used catapults to destroy the count's castle atop the Schloßberg, a hill that overlooks the city center.

At the end of the fourteenth century the veins of silver were dwindling, and by 1460 only approximately 6,000 people still lived within Freiburg's city walls.

The need to find a scapegoat for calamities such as the Black Plague, which claimed 2,000 area residents (25% of the city population) in 1564, led to an escalation in witch-hunting that reached its peak in 1599.

In May 1940, aircraft of the Luftwaffe mistakenly dropped approximately 60 bombs on Freiburg near the railway station, killing 57 people, most of them civilians and including 22 children.

[15] A living memorial has been created in the form of the 'footprint' in marble on the site of the city's original synagogue, which was burned down on 9 November 1938, during the pogrom known as Kristallnacht.

On the site of the former French Army base, a new neighborhood for 5,000 people, Vauban, began in the late 1990s as a "sustainable model district".

Because of its scenic beauty, relatively warm and sunny climate, and easy access to the Black Forest, Freiburg is a hub for regional tourism.

This is the site of Freiburg's Münster, a gothic minster cathedral constructed of red sandstone, built between 1200 and 1530 and noted for its towering spire.

The Historical Merchants' Hall (Historisches Kaufhaus), is a Late Gothic building on the south side of Freiburg's Münsterplatz.

Freiburg is bordered by the Black Forest mountains Rosskopf and Bromberg to the east, Schönberg and Tuniberg to the south, with the Kaiserstuhl hill region to the west.

The city is close to the Kaiserstuhl, a range of hills of volcanic origin located a few kilometers away, which is one of the warmest places in Germany and therefore considered as a viticultural area.

The most recent city council election was held on 9 June 2024, and the results were as follows: Freiburg is a center of academia and research, in which numerous intellectual figures and Nobel Laureates have lived, worked, and taught.

Home to some of the greatest minds of the West, including such eminent figures as Johann Eck, Max Weber, Edmund Husserl, Martin Heidegger, and Friedrich Hayek, it is one of Europe's top research and teaching institutions.

The city is home to the IES Abroad European Union program, which allows students to study the development and activities of the EU.

[30] IES Abroad also offers a German Language and Area Studies program where visiting students get to take classes at the University of Freiburg.

The Catholic Church of St. Maria Schutz has been made available for Masses by Greek, Serbian, Russian and Rumanian Orthodox congregations.

Judaism Jews are said to have lived in the city before 1230, but it was only after 1230 that they supposedly founded an official community in the Webergasse (a small street within the town center).

Middle High German dialect: “daz dekein Jude ze Friburg niemmerme sin sol” [27].

Numerous shops and apartments of Jewish citizens of Freiburg were devastated and plundered by National Socialists without the intervention of police or fire department.

Male, wealthy, Jewish citizens were kidnapped and taken to concentration camps (in Buchenwald and Dachau) where they were subjected to forced labor or executed and their money and property stolen.

In the building of the former Marienbad, the Kunstverein presents current trends and, above all, young positions in contemporary art at an international level.

Immediately following the comments, Freiburg mayor Salomon postponed a trip to Isfahan, but most people involved, especially those in the Alliance '90/The Greens party, were opposed to cancelling the relationship.

It is a stylised depiction of the façade of the Wasserschlössle, a castle-like waterworks facility built into a hill that overlooks the residential district of Wiehre.