Nurnberg owes its place in literary history to Hans Sachs and the other meistersanger. The inventions of its inhabitants include the pocket watch, gun casting, the air gun, gunlocks, terrestrial and celestial globes (the first of which was made before Columbus discovered the Americas), the art of wire-drawing and the clarinet.
Nurnberg was the first imperial town to embrace Protestantism (about 1525). The first blow to its prosperity was the discovery of the sea-route to India in 1497; and the second was inflicted by the Thirty Years’ War which Gustavus Adolphus was besieged here for ten weeks by Wallenstein. The downfall of the town was accelerated by the illiberal policy of its patrician rulers.
In 1803 Niirnberg was allowed to maintain its nominal position as a free city, but in 1806 it was annexed to Bavaria.
The Fourteenth Edition of the Encyclopaedia Britannica (1929) noted: “Considerable sections of the ancient walls and moat still remain; of the 365 bastions which formerly strengthened the walls, nearly 100 are still in situ, and a few of the old gateways have also been preserved. Most of the streets are narrow and crooked, and the majority of the houses have their gables turned towards the street.
The general type of architecture is Gothic, but the rich details, which are lavished with especial freedom in the interior courts, are usually borrowed from the Renaissance. Most of the private dwellings date from the 16"' century, and there are practically none of earlier date than the 15'h century. The roofs are of red tile.