Würzburg (; Main-Franconian: , historical engl. exonyme Wurtzbourg) is the second-largest city in Franconia after Nuremberg and is located in the north of Bavaria. Würzburg is the administrative seat of the Regierungsbezirk Lower Franconia. It spans the banks of the Main river.
Würzburg is situated approximately west-northwest of Nuremberg and east-southeast of Frankfurt am Main. The population as of 2019 is approximately 130,000 residents.
Würzburg is famous for its partly rebuilt and reconstructed old town and its Würzburger Residenz, a palace that is a UNESCO World Heritage Site.
The regional dialect is East Franconian German.
History
Early and medieval history
A Bronze Age (Urnfield culture) refuge castle, the Celtic Segodunum, and later a Roman fort, stood on the hill known as the Leistenberg, the site of the present Fortress Marienberg. The former Celtic territory was settled by Alamanni in the 4th or 5th century later by the Franks in the 6th to 7th. Würzburg was the seat of a Merovingian duke from about 650. It was Christianized in 686 by Irish missionaries Kilian, Kolonat and Totnan. The city is mentioned in a donation by Duke Hedan II to bishop Willibrord, dated 1 May 704, in castellum Virteburch. The Ravenna Cosmography lists the city as Uburzis at about the same time.Norbert Wagner, 'Uburzis-Wirziburg "Würzburg"' The name is presumably of Celtic origin, but based on a folk etymological connection to the German word Würze "herb, spice", the name was Latinized as Herbipolis in the medieval period.Heinz Willner, Der Name Würzburg, Frankenland 1/1999.
The first diocese was founded by Saint Boniface in 742 when he appointed the first bishop of Würzburg, Saint Burkhard. The bishops eventually created a secular fiefdom, that extended to Eastern Franconia in the 12th century. The city was the site of several Imperial Diets, including the one of 1180, at which Henry the Lion, duke of Saxony and Bavaria, was banned for three years from the Empire and his duchy Bavaria was handed over to Otto of Wittelsbach. Massacres of Jews took place in 1147 and 1298.
The first church on the site of the present Würzburg Cathedral was built in 788 and consecrated that same year by Charlemagne; the current building was constructed from 1040 to 1225 in Romanesque style. The University of Würzburg was founded in 1402 and re-founded in 1582 by Julius Echter von Mespelbrunn. The citizens of the city revolted several times against the prince-bishop.
In 1397, King Wenceslaus IV of Bohemia visited the city and promised its people the status of a free Imperial City. However, the German ruling princes forced him to withdraw these promises. In 1400, the bishop's troops decisively defeated the citizenry in the , and the city fell under his control permanently until the dissolution of the fiefdom. During the German Peasants' War, a local town council member, Tilman Riemenschneider refused to obey an order by Konrad von Thüngen, the Prince-Bishop of Würzburg to fight the revolting peasants. This resulted in 8,000 peasants killed on 4 June 1525 just outside Würzburg. Riemenschneider and the entire town council was incarcerated and tortured in Marienberg Fortress.
Modern history The Würzburg witch trials, which occurred between 1626 and 1631, are one of the largest peace-time mass trials. In Würzburg, under Bishop Philip Adolf, an estimated 600 to 900 alleged witches were burnt.Wolfgang Behringer, Witchcraft in Bavaria: Popular Magik, Religious Zealotry, and Reason of State in Early Modern Europe, (Cambridge University Press, 1997). In 1631, Swedish King Gustaf Adolf invaded and ended the witch burnings.
In 1720, the foundations of the Würzburg Residence were laid. In 1796, the Battle of Würzburg between Habsburg Austria and the First French Republic took place. The city passed to the Electorate of Bavaria in 1803 but, two years later, in the course of the Napoleonic Wars, it became the seat of the Electorate of Würzburg (until September 1806), the later Grand Duchy of Würzburg.
In 1814, the town became part of the Kingdom of Bavaria and a new bishopric was created seven years later, as the former one had been secularized in 1803 (see also Reichsdeputationshauptschluss). In 1817, Friedrich Koenig and Andreas Bauer founded Schnellpressenfabrik Koenig & Bauer (the world's first steam-driven printing press manufacturer).
The Hep-Hep riots from August to October 1819 were pogroms against Ashkenazi Jews, beginning in the Kingdom of Bavaria, during the period of Jewish emancipation in the German Confederation. The antisemitic communal violence began on August 2, 1819, in Würzburg and soon reached the outer regions of the German Confederation. Many Jews were killed, and much Jewish property was destroyed.
In 1848, Catholic bishops held the Würzburg Bishops' Conference, a forerunner of later German and Austrian conferences. By distinction, the Würzburg Conference is a name given to the meeting of representatives of the smaller German states in 1859 to devise some means of mutual support. The conference, however, had no result. Würzburg was bombarded and taken by the Prussians in 1866 when it ceased to be a fortress.
In the early 1930s, around 2,000 Jews lived in Würzburg, which was also a rabbinic centre. The Nazi Party in 1933 achieved total control. During the Kristallnacht pogroms in 1938, many Jewish houses and shops were raided, looted, or destroyed. The contents of two synagogues were stolen or destroyed. Many Jews were imprisoned and tortured by the Gestapo. Between November 1941 and June 1943, Jews from the city were sent to the Nazi concentration camps in Eastern Europe.The Story of the Jewish Community in Würzburg an online exhibition by Yad Vashem
From April 1943 to March 1945 a subcamp of the Flossenbürg concentration camp was located in the city, with dozens of prisoners, mostly from Poland and the Soviet Union.
World War II bombing
On 16 March 1945, about 90% of the city was destroyed in 17 minutes by firebombing from 225 British Lancaster bombers during a World War II air raid. Würzburg became a target for its role as a traffic hub and to break the spirit of the population.
All of the city's churches, cathedrals, and other monuments were heavily damaged or destroyed. The city centre, which mostly dated from medieval times, was destroyed in a firestorm in which 5,000 people perished.
Over the next 20 years, the buildings of historical importance were painstakingly and accurately reconstructed. The citizens who rebuilt the city immediately after the end of the war were mostly women – Trümmerfrauen ("rubble women") – because the men were either dead or still prisoners of war. On a relative scale, Würzburg was destroyed to a larger extent than was Dresden in a firebombing the previous month. Today the whole of the old town is cited as a cultural heritage site after decades of rebuilding and reconstruction.
Battle of Würzburg
On 3 April 1945, Würzburg was occupied by the U.S. 12th Armored Division and the U.S. 42nd Infantry Division in a series of frontal assaults masked by smokescreens. The battle continued until the last German resistance was defeated on 5 April 1945.Stanton, Shelby, World War II Order of Battle: An Encyclopedic Reference to U.S. Army Ground Forces from Battalion through Division, 1939–1946 (Revised Edition, 2006), Stackpole Books, p. 65, 129.Seite 777, see also Chapter XVIII
Geography
Würzburg spans the banks of the river Main in the region of Lower Franconia in the north of the state of Bavaria, Germany. The heart of the town is on the locally eastern (right) bank. The town is enclosed by the Landkreis Würzburg but is not a part of it.
Würzburg covers an area of 87.6 square kilometres and lies at an altitude of around 177 metres.
Of the total municipal area, in 2007, building area accounted for 30%, followed by agricultural land (27.9%), forestry/wood (15.5%), green spaces (12.7%), traffic (5.4%), water (1.2%) and others (7.3%).
The centre of Würzburg is surrounded by hills. To the west lies the 266-meter Marienberg and the Nikolausberg (359 m) to the south of it. The Main flows through Würzburg from the southeast to the northwest.
City structure Würzburg is divided into 13 Stadtbezirke which are additionally structured into 25 boroughs. The following overview shows the boroughs and their numbers allocated to the 13 municipalities. 01 Altstadt Dom (01) Neumünster (02) Peter (03) Innere Pleich (04) Haug (05) Äussere Pleich (06) Rennweg (09) Mainviertel (17)02 Zellerau Zellerau (18) 03 Dürrbachtal Dürrbachau (07) Unterdürrbach (22) Oberdürrbach (23) 04 Grombühl Grombühl (08) 05 Lindleinsmühle Lindleinsmühle (19)06 Frauenland Mönchberg (10) Frauenland (11) Keesburg (12) 07 Sanderau Sanderau (13) 08 Heidingsfeld Heidingsfeld (14) 09 Heuchelhof Heuchelhof (20)10 Steinbachtal Steinbachtal (15) Nikolausberg (16) 11 Versbach Versbach (24) 12 Lengfeld Lengfeld (25) 13 Rottenbauer Rottenbauer (21)
Demographics
Wurzburg's 2023 population is now estimated at 126,033.
Foreign population +Largest groups of foreign residents Nationality Population (Dec. 2022) 1,632 1,316 1,153 1,086 759 603 588 526 483 414
Climate
Economy Würzburg had the oldest pizzeria in Germany, Bier- und Speisewirtschaft Capri, opened by Nick di Camillo in 1952. Camillo received the honour of the Italian Order of Merit.
In 2017, the GDP per inhabitant was €62,229, placing the district 13th out of 96 districts (rural and urban) in Bavaria (overall average: €46,698).
Military Following World War II, Würzburg was occupied by the U.S. Army's 1st and 3rd infantry divisions. The last U.S. troops were withdrawn in 2008.
Arts and culture Notable artists who lived in Würzburg include poet Walther von der Vogelweide (12th and 13th centuries), philosopher Albertus Magnus and painter Matthias Grünewald. Sculptor Tilman Riemenschneider (1460–1531) served as mayor and participated in the German Peasants' War. Richard Wagner became chorusmaster at the city’s theater in 1833 and finished his first opera, Die Feen (The Fairies), there that year.
Main sights
Würzburger Residenz: A UNESCO World Heritage Site, the vast compound near the center of the town was commissioned by two prince-bishops, the brothers Johann Philipp Franz and Friedrich Karl von Schönborn. Several architects, including Johann Lukas von Hildebrandt and Maximilian von Welsch, supervised the construction between 1720 and 1744, in imitation of the Palace of Versailles, but it is mainly associated with the name of Balthasar Neumann, the creator of its famous Baroque staircase. The palace suffered severe damage in the British bombing of March 1945 but has been completely rebuilt. The main attractions are: Hofkirche: The church interior is richly decorated with paintings, sculptures and stucco ornaments. The altars were painted by Giovanni Battista Tiepolo. Treppenhaus: Here Giovanni Battista Tiepolo created the largest fresco in the world, which adorns the vault over the staircase designed by Balthasar Neumann. Kaisersaal: The "Imperial Hall", the centerpiece of the palace, testifies to the close relationship between Würzburg and the Holy Roman Empire. Festung Marienberg is a fortress on Marienberg, the hill to the west of the city centre, overlooking the whole town area and the surrounding hills. Most current structures date to the Renaissance and Baroque periods, but the chapel's foundations go back to the 8th century.
(Old Main Bridge) was built in 1473–1543 to replace the destroyed Romanesque bridge dated 1133. In two phases, beginning in 1730, the bridge was adorned with twelve 4.5-meter statues of saints and historically important figures like John of Nepomuk, Mary and Saint Joseph, Charlemagne and Pepin the Short. Explosives damaged the bridge in the final days of World War II. US troops threw the original Pepin into the river to make way for an anti-aircraft gun.