Prince-Bishopric of Speyer

Origins

Speyer had been a bishopric since the 7th century, and Salian kings made it their family church; Conrad II began the great cathedral around 1030. In 1111 Emperor Henry V granted the citizens of Speyer privileges, and the bishops' secular rule over their territory developed in the 11th and 12th centuries.

Rule and society

The bishops ruled a territory on both banks of the Rhine but not the city of Speyer, which became a free imperial city; they moved their residence to Udenheim, renamed Philippsburg, and in 1720 to Bruchsal, where Cardinal Damian Hugo von Schönborn built a baroque palace. The cathedral, burial place of eight emperors and kings, is a World Heritage Site.

Decline and legacy

France annexed the left-bank lands during the Revolutionary Wars, and in 1803 the right-bank territory, including Bruchsal, was secularised and given to Baden. The diocese of Speyer was re-founded in 1817 under Bavaria.