Nördlingen is the oldest city built in a crater

Nördlingen is considered to be the oldes city build in a crater, 1100 years ago. The settlement, first mentioned in documents in 898, is located in the district of Donau-Ries in Bavaria, German, and is positioned inside a crater of about 25 kilometers wide. The crater, named Nördlinger Ries was formed by a meteorite impact produced 14.5 million years ago.

The town is one of the few German cities that have preserved intact its fortification walls. The others are Rothenburg ob der Tauber and Dinkelsbühl. Although residents assumed this fact, specialists could not prove that the city was built in the middle of a crater. However, in 1960, while studying the church in the center of the settlement, the American researchers Eugene Shoemaker and Edward Chao found inside the church a wall made of a type of quartz normally associated with the impact of meteorites. After studying in detail the Nördlinger Ries rocks, scientists have concluded that the depression was built after the city was formed by a meteorite impact.

Nördlingen is a member of Cittaslow, a coalition of “Slowcities” across the world where living takes a more toned-down pace. In order to be a member, towns must be, according to the Cittaslow philosophy, “still curious of the old times” and “rich of theatres, squares, cafes, workshops, restaurants and spiritual places... towns with untouched landscapes.”

About 42 kilometers west southwest of Nordlingen there can be found the Steinheim crater, which is considered by the scientists to be formed simultaneously with the one investigated into the 60s.