and called the Kaiserliche Burg.  The old Five-cornered tower and the surrounding ground was the private property of the Burggraf, and he was appointed by the Emperor as imperial officer of the Kaiserliche Burg.  Whether the Emperors claimed any rights of personal property over Nuremberg or merely treated it, at first, as imperial property, it is difficult to determine.  The castle at any rate was probably built to secure whatever rights were claimed, and to serve generally as an imperial stronghold.  Gradually around the castle grew up the straggling streets of Nuremberg.  Settlers built beneath the shadow of the Burg.  The very names of the streets suggest the vicinity of a camp or fortress.  Soeldnerstrasse, Schmiedstrasse, and so forth, betray the military origin of the present busy commercial town.  From one cause or another a mixture of races, of Germanic and non-Germanic, of Slavonic and Frankish elements, seems to have occurred among the inhabitants of the growing village, producing a special blend which in dialect, in customs, and in dress was soon noticed by the neighbors as unique, and stamping the art and development of Nuremberg with that peculiar character which has never left it.

Various causes combined to promote the growth of the place.  The temporary removal of the Mart from Fuerth to Nuremberg under Henry III. doubtless gave a great impetus to the development of the latter town.  Henry IV., indeed, gave back the rights of Mart, customs and coinage to Fuerth.  But it seems probable that these rights were not taken away again from Nuremberg.  The possession of a Mart was, of course, of great importance to a town in those days, promoting industries and arts and settled occupations.  The Nurembergers were ready to suck out the fullest advantage from their privilege.  That mixture of races, to which we have referred, resulted in remarkable business energy—­energy which soon found scope in the conduct of the business which the natural position of Nuremberg on the south and north, the east and western trade routes, brought to her.  It was not very long before she became the center of the vast trade between the Levant and Western Europe, and the chief emporium for the produce of Italy—­the “Handelsmetropole” in fact of South Germany.

Nothing in the Middle Ages was more conducive to the prosperity of a town than the reputation of having a holy man within its borders, or the possession of the miracle-working relics of a saint.  Just as St. Elizabeth made Marburg so St. Sebaldus proved a very potent attraction to Nuremberg.  As early as 1070 and 1080 we hear of pilgrimages to Nuremberg in honor of her patron saint.