Medieval Must-Sees.

Burgundy! First: Burgundy is actually a very compact place so it is relatively easy to get your head around it and understand what makes it's vineyards special. Secondly, if you are looking for Medieval, the town of Cluny is right there. Cluny was built around the Benedictine Abby of Cluny that was founded in the 900s and for many centuries was a center of civilization and learning in Europe. Also plenty of smaller fortresses, cloisters and towns in Burgundy dating from the medieval period. If I recall correctly, Burgundy was on a trade route dating back to Roman times. If you are working on a book, I will also mention the wine caves beneath the Burgundian city of Beaune. To call them "caves" however, is not to do them justice. It is more like an interlocking cobweb of tunnels and chambers stretching for miles beneath the city. We took a self-guided tour through them last year and I was so impressed that I had daydreams about writing a book myself (only in my book it would have been WWII era with vignerons who moonlighted as resistance heroes who used the "caves" as a hideout. ...Contact me if you want to buy the movie rights!) Anyway, good luck with your project and happy travels!

If you're in Germany, it'd be worth taking a trip to Rothenburg if for no other reason to spend a day at the Medieval Crime and Punishment Museum. It offers tons of insight into the ERA and is very interesting and entertaining to boot. Plenty of artifacts to see as well.

Rhotenburg is an example of a medieval town. It fits your bill too because the Romantic Road was a medieval trade route. The towns dwindled when the trade route shifted and are, at least somewhat, frozen in time........................ Further north in Germany is the Oxenweg, another historic trade route that runs through Schlesswig-Holstein......................Ehrenburg ruins overlooks a trade route that went all the way to Rome....................San Gimignano, Italy is one of my favorite places for a medieval feel.............................I was impressed this year at Roskilde Cathedral. It contains the remains of Harold Bluetooth, a Viking king from about 960. When you get that far north, however, you are out of wine country and into local Beer and Mead production.

Bruges, Belgium was a major medieval trading crossroads, as was Antwerp. Both are beautiful places to visit.

Thanks for great leads. When I found out that my ancestors were from Picardy and the Moselle/Saar I started to study up on these areas. I was amazed at how much commerce there was in the middle ages; including Trade Fairs and the creation of "Lex Mercatoria" (trade law). I will followup on your information. I'm thinking about writing the book as fiction but using real events, people and places, or I could write it as non-fiction if I get enough interesting anecdotes.

Frankfurt was one of the major trade fair cities in the middle ages, beginning around 1150. About 26 major highways ran all the way through Europe, and into Frankfurt. Our book fairs began around 1480, only 40 years after the invention of the printing press. I read a piece written by an English man who had come to the Frankfurt Fairs in the 1500's. He was so amazed at all the items one could buy. The spices, silks, jewelry, and most of all the books. He said he had never seen so many books in one place. The Rhine has lots of medieval stuff like castles, walls, etc. Most towns in Germany are going to have buildings or old town walls from this time period, some more than others. The Swedes destroyed a lot, then the French, then the Prussians and then finally WW2. Frankfurt is lucky to have 4 churches that have survived all of this, ranging from being built in 850 to 1309. We also have several guard towers that date from around 1425 to 1550. We also have the largest wall paintings North of the Alps in the Karmeliter Cloister which were painted 1513-1519 by Joerge Ratgeb.

Thanks Jo: Another thing I am interested in is how commerce survived the Black Plague in the mid 1300's.
Did the Plague come to Frankfurt? How long did it take things to become normal again. I understand sometimes whole towns were abandoned. That is why I keep 3 cats today.

The plague hit Frankfurt in 1241 and in 1349. Many Jews were murdered and blamed for the plague. I don't know about cities or towns being abandoned, but population loss for the cities was a big problem. Ergotism was the 2nd biggest killer, as was leprosy. Frankfurt had a whole section outside the city walls, called Klapperfeld, as this was where these diseased people had to live and they had to carry rattles or klappers so that people would stay away from them. Different orders of monks specialized in the various diseases. This article might interest you, about the Antoniter and their cure for St. Anthonys Fire or ergotism. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hospital_Brothers_of_St._Anthony

Kathleen, you might want to check out a couple of world history books. Hanson's Voyages from Cengage and Bentley/Zeigler's Traditions and Encounters by McGraw-Hill. Both books include coverage of trade routes and their role in the development of history. I know that Perth in the north was a center for trade as well as a de facto capital of Scotland. i remember too from my visit to Salzburg that it too was a trade center. For both of these places it was all about geography.

Pam

Thanx Jo & Pam: Scotland became a big importer of French Wines during the 100 Years war. The English were then SOL so they started to develop trade relations with Spain. Sherry became a big English favorite after that because it kept when it traveled.

Every part of Europe has its links with the Middle Age. But if I had to single out one area, I would draw a circle of 100 miles around Trier, Germany. Many of the most important events and players of Western European history from about 500 A.D. to 1000 A.D., including France, would fall within that circle. There's the Roman remains throughout the region, Clovis, "father" of France at Reims, Charlemagne and the Holy Roman Empire at Aachen, the beginning of Austria's Hapsburg dynasty in Luxembourg, of all places, and others. You can also follow Atilla the Hun's route through the region. Then in the High Middle Ages after 1,000 A.D., there's the great Gothic cathedrals of Reims, Metz, Cologne and several others, and the Rhein, Mosel and Main trade routes, dotted with medieval castles, as well as the great castles at Berg Eltz and Vianden. And don't overlook Hildegard of Bingen, the rock star of the Middle Ages. And that's just a start.

Have you read A Distant Mirror? http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/A_Distant_Mirror It's a fascinating book on the 14th century in Europe.

I visited Rouen, France 2 years ago and found the plague cemetary there to be interesting in a creepy sort of way.

Good luck with your book!

Just found Adrian Fletcher's site Paradoxplace. Excellent quick reference for Europe in the Middle Ages and Rennaisance. Great photos. I especially like the Green Man corbels on Melrose Abbey.