Würzburg Residence

Würzburg Residence

Until the dissolution of the spiritual territories under Napoleon, Würzburg Castle served as the seat of the Würzburg prince-bishops. The Residence is one of the most important late baroque buildings and plays in the same league as the palaces of Versailles (Paris) and Schönbrunn (Vienna). In 1981 it was included in the UNESCO World Heritage List.

Picture: A.Murmann CC BY-SA 4.0

The Residence counts as one of "the most uniform and extraordinary of all Baroque castles", "unique due to its originality, its ambitious construction programme and the international composition of the building office", and as a "synthesis of European Baroque". The main architect was Balthasar Neumann, who also died in Würzburg a few years after the completion of the palace. Construction began in 1720. In 1744, the residence building was completed, but the interior was only finished in 1781. The most outstanding of these is the game cabinet, reconstructed after its destruction of the Second World War, which is considered to be the most complete spatial work of art in rococo art.

The huge staircase is also one of the great sights. The gigantic access road and stairs are vaulted by the largest continuous ceiling fresco in the world. It measures about 580 m² and was painted from 1752 to 1753 by Giovanni Battista Tiepolo from Venice. With much luck it survived the heavy bombing raids on Würzburg during the Second World War.

Picture: A.Murmann CC BY-SA 4.0