The mountain at a ford over the Eder north of the Burgwald range was for a long time a fortified place, playing an especially important role under the Franks in the Saxon Wars. The town was built in 1233-1234 by the Thuringian Landgrave at the junction of two trade routes. The renovated Old and New Town have many half-timbered houses. In 2018 the town adopted the additional name "Philipp Soldan Stadt".