Timber framed houses along the river Rur in Monschau.

The city originated around 1195 and takes its name from the castle situated on a hill above the river Rur (PiP2). It is mentioned for the first time in 1198 as Mons Ioci and then in 1217 as Munioie and as Monjoje in 1226.

Monjoye dominated the written form during the Late Middle Ages and in the Early Modern Times. Around 1800, the Montjoie form arose during the French rule in the Rhineland. By official decree, the name was ‘Germanized’ into Monschau in autumn of 1918 as the result of the lost First World War and the ensuing Francophobia.