Imperial village

The imperial villages (Reichsdörfer, singular Reichsdorf) were the smallest component entities of the Holy Roman Empire.

[2] The imperial villages—relics of the royal demesne during the era of the Hohenstaufen—were all located in southern and western Germany and in Alsace.

These villages had preserved their rights of justice and their free status for centuries without force of arms, a "testimony to the progressive 'juridification' of the Reich".

Politically, it possessed a similar structure to the Free Men of the Leutkircher Heath, yet was the only officially designated Reichstal in the Empire.

The Reichstal was approached from the Free Imperial City of Zell am Harmersbach at the mouth of the valley.