There has been a settlement here since about 500 B.C., but Rothenburg didn't really come into its own until the Holy Roman Emperor Rudolf the First, chartered it as a free imperial city in 1274. Rothenburg became a prosperous trading center , one of the leading cities in Southern Germany.Many of the buildings we see today are from this period such as Rothenburg's Townhall----the Rathaus . The older Gothic section on the left dates from 1240.The church of St. Jacob was begun in 1336 and houses the wooden altar of the Last Supper, by the artist we first saw in Würzburg, Tilman Riemenschneider. The intricate details on the elegant drapery of the figures firmly establish Tilman Riemenschneider as a master of Gothic sculpture.

　　The evening is the perfect time to take a guided tour with Rothenburg's own nightwatcher.

　　All right, let's have another stop after this long walk. My name is George, night watchman here, the only one, and I want to tell you something about the duties a night watchman had, back in the Middle Ages. It was a bad job, a low job, because people were superstitious in the Middle Ages and they feared the night, they believed in ghosts and all kinds of scary things going on at the night time, and night watchman's main duty was to guard the city at night like police, and that was dangerous because all the good people were home at night.

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　　intricate : adj.复杂的, 错综的, 难以理解的

　　drapery: n.(供装饰用的)织物, 帏帐, 布料