Map - Ansbach

Ansbach (East Franconian: Anschba) is a city in the German state of Bavaria. It is the capital of the administrative region of Middle Franconia. Ansbach is 25 mi southwest of Nuremberg and 90 mi north of Munich, on the river Fränkische Rezat, a tributary of the river Main. In 2020, its population was 41,681.

Developed in the 8th century as a Benedictine monastery, it became the seat of the Hohenzollern family in 1331. In 1460, the Margraves of Brandenburg-Ansbach lived here. The city has a castle known as Margrafen–Schloss, built between 1704 and 1738. It was not badly damaged during the World Wars and hence retains its original historical baroque sheen. Ansbach is now home to a US military base and to the Ansbach University of Applied Sciences.

The city has connections via autobahn A6 and highways B13 and B14. Ansbach station is on the Nürnberg–Crailsheim and Treuchtlingen–Würzburg railways and is the terminus of line S4 of the Nuremberg S-Bahn.

Ansbach was originally called Onoltesbach (about 790 AD), a term composed of three parts.

The individual word elements are "Onold" (the city founder's name), the Suffix "-es" (a possessive ending, like "-'s" in English) and the Old High German expression "pah" or "bach" (for brook). The name of the city has slightly changed throughout the centuries into Onoltespah (837 AD), Onoldesbach (1141 AD), Onoldsbach (1230 AD), Onelspach (1338 AD), Onsbach (1508 AD) and finally Ansbach (1732 AD).

It was also formerly known as Anspach.