Founding of the city more than 1200 years ago. First mentioned in the testament of the abbot Fulrad from St. Denis near Paris. In 777 he bequeathed his cell over the Neckar - called "Hetsilinga" in a document from 866 - to his monastery St. Denis near Paris in the case of his death. The name Esslingen comes from the time of the Alemanni and goes back to the tribe of the Ezzelinge, to the people of a certain Azzilo or Hetsilo. At the time of the Staufens, Esslingen on the Neckar experienced its first and probably also the greatest heyday of its history. In this time the city became a free imperial city and was only subject to the emperor. The Staufen period also characterizes the image of the city, in the 13th and 14th century important buildings like the city church, the Church of Our Lady, the Dominican and Franciscan Church and many monasteries, gates, towers and administrative buildings. Esslingen on the Neckar appears for the first time as a city in a document from the year 1219.