Bamberg

Sister cities

• Carlos Paz
• Prague
• Fredonia
• Nagaoka
• Feldkirchen in Kärnten
• Villach
• Bedford
• Rodez
• Esztergom

History

During the post-Roman centuries of Germanic migration and settlement, the region later included in the Diocese of Bamberg was inhabited for the most part by Slavs. The town, first mentioned in 902, grew up by the castle which gave its name to the Babenberg family. On their extinction, it passed to the Saxon house. The area was Christianized chiefly by the monks of the Benedictine Fulda Abbey, and the land was under the spiritual authority of the Diocese of Würzburg. In 1007, Holy Roman Emperor Henry II made Bamberg a family inheritance, the seat of a separate diocese. The Emperor's purpose in this was to make the Diocese of Würzburg less unwieldy in size and to give Christianity a firmer footing in the districts of Franconia, east of Bamberg. In 1008, after long negotiations with the Bishops of Würzburg and Eichstätt, who were to cede portions of their dioceses, the boundaries of the new diocese were defined, and Pope John XVIII granted the papal confirmation in the same year. Henry II ordered the building of a new cathedral, which was consecrated on 6 May 1012. The church was enriched with gifts from the pope, and Henry had it dedicated in honor of him. In 1017, Henry founded Michaelsberg Abbey on the Michaelsberg ("Mount St Michael"), near Bamberg, a Benedictine abbey for the training of the clergy. The emperor and his wife, Kunigunde, gave large temporal possessions to the new diocese, and it received many privileges out of which grew the secular power of the bishop. Pope Benedict VIII visited Bamberg in 1020 to meet Henry II for discussions concerning the Holy Roman Empire. While he was there, he placed the diocese in direct dependence on the Holy See. He also personally consecrated some of Bamberg's churches. For a short time, Bamberg was the centre of the Holy…

Geography

Bamberg is located in Franconia, north of Nuremberg by railway and east of Würzburg, also by rail. It is situated on the Regnitz river, before it flows into the Main river. Its geography is shaped by the Regnitz and by the foothills of the Steigerwald, part of the German uplands. From northeast to southwest, the town is divided into first the Regnitz plain, then one large and several small islands formed by two arms of the Regnitz ('), and finally the part of town on the hills, the "Hill Town" ('). Bamberg extends over seven hills, each crowned by a church. This has led to Bamberg being called the "Franconian Rome"—although a running joke among Bamberg's tour guides is to refer to Rome instead as the "Italian Bamberg". The hills are Cathedral Hill, Michaelsberg, Kaulberg/Obere Pfarre, Stefansberg, Jakobsberg, Altenburger Hill and Abtsberg. Climate in this area has mild differences between highs and lows, and there is adequate rainfall year-round. The Köppen climate classification subtype for this climate is "Cfb" (Marine West Coast Climate/Oceanic climate), with a certain continental influence as indicated by average winter nighttime temperatures well below zero.