Garmisch-Partenkirchen

Garmisch-Partenkirchen is a ski town in Bavaria, southern Germany. It is the seat of government of the district of Garmisch-Partenkirchen (abbreviated GAP), in the Oberbayern region, which borders Austria. Nearby is Germany's highest mountain, Zugspitze, at 2,962 m (9,718 ft.).The town was the site of the 1936 Winter Olympic Games.HistoryGarmisch and Partenkirchen were separate towns for many centuries, and still maintain quite separate identities.Partenkirchen originated as the Roman town of Partanum on the trade route from Venice to Augsburg and is first mentioned in the year A.D. 15. Its main street, Ludwigsstrasse, follows the original Roman road.Garmisch is first mentioned some 800 years later as Germaneskau, suggesting that at some point a Teutonic tribe took up settlement in the western end of the valley.During the late 13th century, the valley, as part of the County of Werdenfels, came under the rule of the prince-bishops of Freising and was to remain so until the mediatization of 1803. The area was governed by a prince-bishop's representative known as a Pfleger from Werdenfels Castle situated on a crag north of Garmisch.