Rain is a municipality

Municipalities of Germany

Municipalities are the lowest level of territorial division in Germany. This may be the fourth level of territorial division in Germany, apart from those states which include Regierungsbezirke , where municipalities then become the fifth level.-Overview:With more than 3,400,000 inhabitants, the...

  in the Donau-Ries

Donau-Ries

Donau-Ries is a district in Bavaria, Germany. It is bounded by the districts of Ansbach, Weißenburg-Gunzenhausen, Eichstätt, Neuburg-Schrobenhausen, Aichach-Friedberg, Augsburg and Dillingen, and by the state of Baden-Württemberg .-History:From Palaeolithic times on the Nördlinger Ries was a very...

 district, in Bavaria

Bavaria

Bavaria, formally the Free State of Bavaria is a state of Germany, located in the southeast of Germany. With an area of , it is the largest state by area, forming almost 20% of the total land area of Germany...

, Germany

Germany

Germany , officially the Federal Republic of Germany , is a federal parliamentary republic in Europe. The country consists of 16 states while the capital and largest city is Berlin. Germany covers an area of 357,021 km2 and has a largely temperate seasonal climate...

. It is situated on the river Lech, close to its confluence with the Danube

Danube

The Danube is a river in the Central Europe and the Europe's second longest river after the Volga. It is classified as an international waterway....

, 11 km east of Donauwörth

Donauwörth

Donauwörth is a city in the German State of Bavaria , in the region of Swabia . It is said to have been founded by two fisherman where the Danube and Wörnitz rivers meet...

.

Rain is on the B16 road and served by the Danube Valley Railway

Danube Valley Railway (Bavaria)

The Danube Valley Railway in Bavaria in southern Germany is the railway line that runs from Regensburg via Ingolstadt and Donauwörth to Ulm, just over the Bavarian border in Baden-Württemberg....

 (Donautalbahn), both of which run between Ulm

Ulm

Ulm is a city in the federal German state of Baden-Württemberg, situated on the River Danube. The city, whose population is estimated at 120,000 , forms an urban district of its own and is the administrative seat of the Alb-Donau district. Ulm, founded around 850, is rich in history and...

 and Regensburg

Regensburg

Regensburg is a city in Bavaria, Germany, located at the confluence of the Danube and Regen rivers, at the northernmost bend in the Danube. To the east lies the Bavarian Forest. Regensburg is the capital of the Bavarian administrative region Upper Palatinate...

.

The earliest reference to Rain is in a document of the Niederschönenfeld

Niederschönenfeld

Niederschönenfeld is a municipality in the district of Donau-Ries in Bavaria in Germany....

 monastery

Monastery

Monastery denotes the building, or complex of buildings, that houses a room reserved for prayer as well as the domestic quarters and workplace of monastics, whether monks or nuns, and whether living in community or alone .Monasteries may vary greatly in size – a small dwelling accommodating only...

 dated 4 July 1257, wherein it is described as a "civitas nostra" or ducal town. It is most probable that Rain was founded during the reign of Otto II Wittelsbach, Duke of Bavaria

Otto II Wittelsbach, Duke of Bavaria

Otto II of Bavaria was the Duke of Bavaria and Count Palatine of the Rhine . He was a son of Louis I and Ludmilla of Bohemia and a member of the Wittelsbach dynasty.- Biography :...

 (1248–1253) or at the latest in the reign of Louis II, Duke of Bavaria

Louis II, Duke of Bavaria

Duke Louis II of Bavaria was Duke of Bavaria and Count Palatine of the Rhine from 1253. Born in Heidelberg, he was a son of duke Otto II and Agnes of the Palatinate...

 (1253–1294) before 1257.

Rain was founded for economic and strategic reasons. The town protected the Bavaria from the northwest and collected customs

Customs

Customs is an authority or agency in a country responsible for collecting and safeguarding customs duties and for controlling the flow of goods including animals, transports, personal effects and hazardous items in and out of a country...

 from its bridge

Bridge

A bridge is a structure built to span physical obstacles such as a body of water, valley, or road, for the purpose of providing passage over the obstacle...

 over the river Lech.

On 15 April 1632 during the Thirty Years War the Battle of Rain

Battle of Rain

The Battle of Rain was fought on April 15, 1632, as part of the Thirty Years' War. The forces involved in this conflict were 40,000 Swedish troops under Gustavus Adolphus and 25,000 Catholic League troops under Count Johan Tzerclaes of Tilly...

 took place. The Protestant army

Army

An army An army An army (from Latin arma "arms, weapons" via Old French armée, "armed" (feminine), in the broadest sense, is the land-based military of a nation or state. It may also include other branches of the military such as the air force via means of aviation corps...

 of Gustavus Adolphus of Sweden

Sweden

Sweden , officially the Kingdom of Sweden , is a Nordic country on the Scandinavian Peninsula in Northern Europe. Sweden borders with Norway and Finland and is connected to Denmark by a bridge-tunnel across the Öresund....

 defeated the army of the Catholic League

Catholic League (German)

The German Catholic League was initially a loose confederation of Roman Catholic German states formed on July 10, 1609 to counteract the Protestant Union , whereby the participating states concluded an alliance "for the defence of the Catholic religion and peace within the Empire." Modeled...

 commanded by Johann Tserclaes von Tilly. Tilly withdrew his troops to Ingolstadt

Ingolstadt

Ingolstadt is a city in the Free State of Bavaria, in the Federal Republic of Germany. It is located along the banks of the Danube River, in the center of Bavaria. As at 31 March 2011, Ingolstadt had 125.407 residents...

, where he died from tetanus

Tetanus

Tetanus is a medical condition characterized by a prolonged contraction of skeletal muscle fibers. The primary symptoms are caused by tetanospasmin, a neurotoxin produced by the Gram-positive, rod-shaped, obligate anaerobic bacterium Clostridium tetani...

 from an infected gunshot wound in his thigh.

In 1914 a monument

Monument

A monument is a type of structure either explicitly created to commemorate a person or important event or which has become important to a social group as a part of their remembrance of historic times or cultural heritage, or simply as an example of historic architecture...

 commemorating Tilly was erected in front of Rain's Rococo

Rococo

Rococo , also referred to as "Late Baroque", is an 18th-century style which developed as Baroque artists gave up their symmetry and became increasingly ornate, florid, and playful...

 town hall. Rain's architectural heritage also includes the Roman Catholic parish

Parish

A parish is a territorial unit historically under the pastoral care and clerical jurisdiction of one parish priest, who might be assisted in his pastoral duties by a curate or curates - also priests but not the parish priest - from a more or less central parish church with its associated organization...

 church of St John the Baptist, which features late Gothic

Gothic art

Gothic art was a Medieval art movement that developed in France out of Romanesque art in the mid-12th century, led by the concurrent development of Gothic architecture. It spread to all of Western Europe, but took over art more completely north of the Alps, never quite effacing more classical...

 fresco

Fresco

Fresco is any of several related mural painting types, executed on plaster on walls or ceilings. The word fresco comes from the Greek word affresca which derives from the Latin word for "fresh". Frescoes first developed in the ancient world and continued to be popular through the Renaissance...

es dating from about 1480. There is also the Schwabian Gate, the historic Spital with its All Saints' chapel

Chapel

A chapel is a building used by Christians as a place of fellowship and worship. It may be part of a larger structure or complex, such as a church, college, hospital, palace, prison or funeral home, located on board a military or commercial ship, or it may be an entirely free-standing building,...

 and the former Castle

Castle

A castle is a type of fortified structure built in Europe and the Middle East during the Middle Ages by European nobility. Scholars debate the scope of the word castle, but usually consider it to be the private fortified residence of a lord or noble...

.

Rain has three museums: the Lachner Brothers Museum, Homeland Museum and Jean-Duprai-Museum. The four Lachner brothers, Theodor, Franz

Franz Lachner

Franz Paul Lachner was a German composer and conductor.Lachner was born in Rain am Lech to a musical family . He studied music with Simon Sechter and Maximilian, the Abbé Stadler. He conducted at the Theater am Kärntnertor in Vienna. In 1834, he became Kapellmeister at Mannheim...

, Ignaz

Ignaz Lachner

Ignaz Lachner , was a German composer and conductor.Ignaz Lachner was born into a musical family at Rain am Lech. He was the second of the three famous Lachner brothers. Lachner's brothers Franz and Vinzenz, were also composers...

 and Vinzenz

Vinzenz Lachner

Vinzenz Lachner was a significant German composer and conductor....

, were nineteenth century German composers, all of whom were born in the town.

Other historic figures from Rain include lawyer and astronomer Johann Bayer

Johann Bayer

Johann Bayer was a German lawyer and uranographer . He was born in Rain, Bavaria, in 1572. He began his study of philosophy in Ingolstadt in 1592, and moved later to Augsburg to begin work as a lawyer. He grew interested in astronomy during his time in Augsburg...

 (1562–1625), humanist Georg Tannstetter

Georg Tannstetter

Georg Tannstetter , also called Georgius Collimitius, was a humanist teaching at the University of Vienna. He was a medical doctor, mathematician, astronomer, cartographer, and the personal physician of the emperors Maximilian I and Ferdinand I. He also wrote under the pseudonym of "Lycoripensis"...

 (1482–1535) and pianist Michael Raucheisen

Michael Raucheisen

Translated from German WikipediaMichael Raucheisen was a German pianist and song accompanist....

 (1889–1984).

Rain is the headquarters

Headquarters

Headquarters denotes the location where most, if not all, of the important functions of an organization are coordinated. In the United States, the corporate headquarters represents the entity at the center or the top of a corporation taking full responsibility managing all business activities...

 of the Dehner chain of garden centres, which employs 1,100 people in the town. Rain's other industries include a sugar

Sugar

Sugar is a class of edible crystalline carbohydrates, mainly sucrose, lactose, and fructose, characterized by a sweet flavor.Sucrose in its refined form primarily comes from sugar cane and sugar beet...

 refinery employing 240-280 people.

Rain is twinned with Tougan

Tougan

Tougan is a town located in the province of Sourou in Burkina Faso. It is the capital of Sourou Province....

, capital of the province

Province

A province is a territorial unit, almost always an administrative division, within a country or state.-Etymology:The English word "province" is attested since about 1330 and derives from the 13th-century Old French "province," which itself comes from the Latin word "provincia," which referred to...

 of Sourou

Sourou Province

Sourou is one of the 45 provinces of Burkina Faso, located in its Hauts-Bassins Region.Its capital is Tougan.Sourou is divided into 8 departments:*Di*Gomboro*Kassoum*Kiembara*Lanfiera*Lankoue*Toeni*TouganSee also:*Regions of Burkina Faso...

 in Burkina Faso

Burkina Faso

Burkina Faso – also known by its short-form name Burkina – is a landlocked country in west Africa. It is surrounded by six countries: Mali to the north, Niger to the east, Benin to the southeast, Togo and Ghana to the south, and Côte d'Ivoire to the southwest.Its size is with an estimated...

.