Which city was sacked and burned by Catholic forces in 1631?

Magdeburg was sacked and burned by Catholic forces in 1631.

The city, a Protestant stronghold in the Holy Roman Empire, resisted imperial demands during the Thirty Years’ War. Imperial troops and forces of the Catholic League besieged Magdeburg beginning in March 1631. The attackers were commanded by Count Tilly and Gottfried Heinrich von Pappenheim, while the city’s defence included Dietrich von Falkenberg and former administrator Christian William.

The assault began on 20 May after the city had endured roughly two months of siege. Imperial troops broke through the fortifications, and widespread looting and fires followed. Much of the destruction appears to have developed out of fighting and fires deliberately started in individual buildings, rather than from a single centrally ordered plan to burn the entire city. The blaze destroyed most of Magdeburg.

Around 20,000 people died, including civilians and defenders, making the sack one of the war’s most notorious atrocities. The event shocked Protestant Europe and became powerful propaganda for anti-Catholic intervention. Magdeburg’s destruction also explains why “Magdeburg’s Wedding” became a grim contemporary nickname for the catastrophe.