Celeberrima ac Spatiosißima Thuringiae Metropolis Erfurtum

Superb map and general view of the city of Erfurt.

The map shows the city's fortifications and a legend identifies the 42 points of interest. The view of the city is framed by an allegorical representation of the agriculture of the region and a personification of the river Gera on the right.

The first written mention of the town in an official document dates back to 742: a letter from Boniface of Mainz to Pope Zechariah in which Boniface requests confirmation of the establishment of the bishopric of Erphesfurt. It is reasonable to assume that there was already an important settlement there at that time, as a bishopric was established. The diocese of Erfurt merged with the diocese of Mainz in 755.

At the beginning of the 9th century, Erfurt was an important trading centre on the border of the Carolingian Empire. Charlemagne built the first church dedicated to the Virgin Mary in 805. The city is home to an imperial palace (Königspfalz), which was often used by the Carolingians and Ottonians. Several imperial assemblies were held here, notably in 1181 and 1183. In 1181, the Bavarian Duke Henry the Lion was banished from the Empire by Emperor Frederick Barbarossa and sentenced to a three-year exile.

In the 14th and 15th centuries, Erfurt, with a population of between 18,000 and 20,000, was one of the largest cities (after Cologne, Nuremberg and Magdeburg) in the Germanic Roman Empire and reached the peak of its economic, cultural and political development in the Middle Ages. It was enriched by the woad trade, whose merchants financed the establishment of the university.

In 1664, the city was taken by the French troops of Louis XIV in alliance with the troops of the Archbishop of Mainz, Jean-Philippe de Schönborn, and the region came under the rule of the Electorate of Mainz. The city suffered a terrible plague epidemic which killed half of its inhabitants in 1683.