The castle stands very high, and they were obliged to drive up through very narrow and steep streets; but the horses were used to it, and Mrs. Winter finally overcame her nervousness.
When the top of the hill was reached, there was a plateau where a beautiful view of the city was to be seen. They left the carriage here, and after looking at the scenery they walked on up to the castle.
On the way they saw a small shed, and, on looking in, found it held the famous well. A young girl was there, who, in a parrot sort of way, told them that the well was built in the eleventh century, under Conrad II., by convicts, and that it took thirty years to finish it. She told Mrs. Winter to hold a mirror in her hand while she lowered a candle, to show by the reflection in the mirror the depth of the well. It took just six seconds for water which she poured out of a glass to reach the water in the well. She told them it was four hundred and fifty feet deep, and they all believed her.
In the courtyard of the castle they saw an old linden tree growing, which is said to have been planted by Empress Kunigunde eight hundred years ago.
The castle they found quite interesting without being very elegant. A lady in charge of it told them many things of interest about the castle and the city.
She told them that the first records of Nuremberg date from 1050. In 1105 the town was besieged, conquered, and destroyed by Henry V., again besieged in 1127 by Emperor Lothar, from which time imperial officials appeared who took the title of Burggrafer.
Frederick I. (Barbarossa), under whom the burg was enlarged, frequently lived here from 1156 to 1188. Rudolph von Hapsburg held his first diet here in 1274, and often visited the town.
Under Emperor Karl IV. the first stone bridge was built, and the streets were paved.
The first fundamental law of the empire was formed by him, and is known as the "Golden Bull." It was framed in Nuremberg in 1356, and is still kept in Frankfort.
According to this law, every German emperor was obliged to spend his first day of government in Nuremberg.
His government was very favorable to Nuremberg in every way.
The four large towers were built 1555 to 1568, after a plan designed by Albert Dürer. The town reached its highest artistic development in the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries, under such men as Albert Dürer, A. Krafft, Herman Fischer, and many others.