Town of Bamberg (Germany) - World Heritage Sites on Waymarking.com

The old town of Bamberg is a remarkable example of a central European town with a basically early medieval plan. It entered history in the year 902. The franconian king and later roman emperor Heinrich II. (1002-1024) founded a new diocese and made Bamberg to one of the main sites of his empire – Rome being the other).

Moments of architectural history relevant to the whole of Europe have been encapsulated in the historic town with its innumerable monumental buildings which date from the 11th to the 18th century creating a synthesis of medieval churches and baroque palace-like burgher houses. The town was laid out according to medieval planning rules as a cross, with the churches of St. Michael, St. Stephen, St. Gangolf, and St. Jacob at the four cardinal points. Another phase of cultural prosperity was in the late 17th and early 18th centuries when the town obtained a new look through the work of artists like Balthasar Neumann. Further on Bamberg was the centre of the Enlightenment for southern Germany under Prince-Bishop Franz-Ludwig von Erthal.

In 1803 Bamberg was ceded to the Elector of Bavaria. Bamberg’s architecture had a strong influence on an area stretching from central Germany to as far as Hungary, while its baroque element is intimately linked with developments in Bohemia. "Franconian Rome" on the Regnitz forms an architectural ensemble of extreme raritiy in which the cathedral, the Alte Hofhaltung (former imperial palace), Böttinger Palace, the old town hall (which is surrounded on all sides by the river) and the old fishermen’s houses of "Little Venice" are spectacular attractions.

Town of Bamberg was inscripted into UNESCO World Heritage List in 2003.