Since the Elbe river was vital to the Hanseatic League's member Hamburg, in 1299 a 35 meter tower was built as lighthouse and protection against pirates. The lighthouse existing today was built between 1367 and 1369 after a fire destroyed the earlier one. It is Hamburg's oldest existing building as well as Hamburg's last fortification.
1009 was the beginning of an important era for Goslar as a central Kaiserpfalz (imperial palace) of the Holy Roman Empire. That year the first imperial synod was held here under Henry II. The palace was probably located in the hill of Georgenberg. Henry II held further imperial councils and synods in Goslar in 1015, 1017 and 1019, and he stayed in Goslar seven times in all. The palace at Goslar gradually superseded the one at Werla, which was given up by the foreign emperors due to its importance for the nobility of Saxony. The development of Goslar as a central location for the Empire reached its zenith under the Salians.
The town was first mentioned in AD 795 and was raised to city status in AD 972 by Otto I. Its name is derived from the Longobardi, the tribe for whom it was the home and centre, and from it the colonization of Lombardy started.[2]
In 1146 the collegiate church of Saints Peter and Paul is recorded first. In 1186 the then competent Prince-Bishop of Verden, Tammo (d. 1188), further privileged the collegiate church.
The city was razed to the ground, with the exception of the churches, in AD 1189 by Henry the Lion. Until that time, it was the most prosperous commercial city of north Germany.
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