Mozart &
Material Culture

Mannheim, a village in the Palatine not far from Heidelberg with a population in the mid-1560s of under a thousand, received a city patent in 1607 from Elector Friedrich IV, a year after he had laid the foundation for the Friedrichsburg fortress there. Constructed on a grid pattern — and possibly the first European city built in this fashion — Mannheim became the capital of the Palatine in 1720 when Elector Karl Philipp moved his court there from Heidelberg.