Marienberg Fortress

The hill has been fortified since the Iron Age, and the prince-bishops of Würzburg lived here from 1253 until they moved down to the Residenz in 1719. Inside the walls stands the Marienkirche, a round church built about the year 700, one of the oldest surviving churches in Germany. The fortress was converted into a bastioned artillery fortification in the seventeenth century, and a bombing raid in March 1945 gutted it; rebuilding took decades. The Fürstenbaumuseum covers the bishops' city, and the Museum für Franken holds Tilman Riemenschneider's wood sculptures. Vineyards climb the slope between the fortress and the river.

Background

The fortress stands on a spur of the Marienberg, a hill of 266 metres that rises about 100 metres above the left bank of the Main. Around 1000 BC people of the Urnfield culture built a Celtic refuge castle here. Finds from the later Hallstatt culture show trade with Ancient Greece, and circa 500 BC the hill was a northern outpost of the wine trade. A 7th century document calls the hilltop site Uburzi, a name that turned into Virteburch and finally Würzburg. In the early 8th century Duke Hedan II had a chapel to the Virgin Mary built, with earth ramparts and half-timbered houses. Medieval fortifications rose from around 1200, and after 1631 the castle became a Baroque residence.

Source: Wikipedia, "Marienberg Fortress"

What to look for

• The round church - a Marienkirche of about 700 inside the walls.
• The bastioned defences - seventeenth-century artillery works.
• The Riemenschneider sculptures - late Gothic limewood figures in the museum.
• The vineyard slope - terraces running down to the Main and the old bridge.

When to go

April to October; the walk up from the old bridge through the vines takes about twenty minutes. Museums close Mondays and keep shorter winter hours.

Practical notes

Much of the fortress is postwar reconstruction after 1945 bombing. The climb is steep. The two museums have separate tickets and hours.

Nearby

Würzburg's Residenz lies across the river; the Main flows below.

Key facts