Pirmasens

Pirmasens is an independent town in Rhineland-Palatinate, Germany, near the border with France, and was long famous for the manufacture of shoes. Its name comes from St Pirminius, founder of Hornbach Abbey, whose colony Pirminiseusna was first mentioned in 860. The place passed between the Bishopric of Metz, the Diocese of Speyer and several counties, and was ravaged repeatedly in the Thirty Years War and later conflicts, until only 16 people were recorded there in 1691. In 1697 the administrative centre of Amt Lemberg moved to Pirmasens, which made it the most important locality of the region. Landgrave Ludwig IX of Hesse-Darmstadt took up residence in a hunting lodge in the town and granted it city rights in 1763. The Battle of Pirmasens was fought here in 1793, and US troops captured the town on 15 March 1945, after which it became part of the newly established state of Rhineland-Palatinate.