Easily reached on foot from the old town of Würzburg is The Residence. I went looking to see whether there was a longer name for it, but it just seems to be called The Residence Würzburg.
It was built from 1720 to 1744 and is now open to the public. Until 1802 it was the seat of the prince bishops of the area. Prince bishops were the combination of a religious and a secular leader in a single person. During the Holy Roman Empire, there were 25 such prince bishops across the geography claimed by the German Emperor. They reached from Olmütz in the East (Olomouc in the Czech Republic), to Trient (Trento in Italy) to Basel (in Switzerland), to Lüttich (Liège in Belgium) to Lübeck on the Baltic coast of Germany. The borders of the Holy Roman Empire were never very precise as it was more of a loose gathering of princedoms, duchies and statelets. The Holy Roman Empire collapsed in 1806 following Napoleon’s rise to Emperor claiming to be the true descendent from Charlemange, rather than the German Emperor.
In light of the lovely weather during our visit, we only toured the gardens. Very beautifully maintained and convincingly called the East Garden,
the South Garden
and the Kitchen Garden. I didn’t take any pictures of the kitchen garden, which remains a garden in which herbs and vegetables are grown. We spent some time playing “recognise that plant” while walking around. It is separated from the ornamental gardens by an orangerie.
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