10 largest cities in Germany
Berlin
Hamburg
Munich
Cologne
Frankfurt am Main
Hanover
Dusseldorf
Leipzig
Bremen
Dresden
Würzburg (Latinized Herbipolis; until the 19th century also
Wirzburg) is a city in Bavaria (district of Lower Franconia). The
city is the seat of the government of Lower Franconia and the
District Office of Würzburg, an important school and university
location and (since 742) the seat of the diocese of the same name
and thus the spiritual center of Main Franconia.
With around
128,000 inhabitants, the city on the Main is the seventh largest
city in Bavaria, after Munich, Nuremberg, Augsburg, Regensburg,
Ingolstadt and Fürth. In 2000, Würzburg was still in fourth place,
but in contrast to most of the larger cities in Bavaria, the number
of inhabitants in the Lower Franconian metropolis no longer
increased. Würzburg has been one of the three newly created regional
centers of the Free State of Bavaria since 2018.
In the year
704 Würzburg was first mentioned as a fortification "Virteburh" ("in
castello Virteburh"). Already in the Middle Ages the city was an
important economic, spiritual and sovereign center. The
supraregional importance remained high until the industrial
revolution. An impressive cityscape was created, comparable to
outstanding central European old towns such as Krakow. This was
badly damaged in the Second World War, especially by the bombing on
March 16, 1945. During the reconstruction, important individual
monuments such as most of the churches in the old town were
externally reconstructed, but only a few town house ensembles and
traditional islands. The Würzburg Residence, which was also
partially badly damaged during the war and subsequently restored,
with its courtyard garden and Residenzplatz, was included in the
UNESCO World Heritage List in 1981. After Aachen Cathedral and
together with Speyer Cathedral, it was the third German building on
the list. With the Julius Maximilians University, which is in the
tradition of the High School in Würzburg founded in 1402 and is
therefore the oldest university in Bavaria, the city is one of the
classic German university cities. The Würzburg-Schweinfurt
University of Applied Sciences and the Würzburg University of Music,
founded in 1797, are further academic institutions. 35,600 students
(as of winter semester 2017/18) and other university members shape
urban life.