Marburg, like many settlements, has developed at the crossroads of two important early medieval highways: the trade route linking Cologne and Prague and the trade route from the North Sea to the Alps and on to Italy, the former crossing the river Lahn here.

The settlement is protected and customs are raised by a small castle built during the ninth or tenth century by the Giso.

Marburg has been a town since 1140, as proven by coins.

From the Gisos, it falls around that time to the Landgraves of Thuringia, residing on the Wartburg above Eisenach.