Passau

Sister cities

• Scurcola Marsicana
• Montecchio Maggiore
• Liuzhou
• Akita
• České Budějovice
• Málaga
• Colonia Tovar
• Dumfries
• Eferding
• Cagnes-sur-Mer
• Faro
• Veszprém

History

In the 2nd century BC, many of the Boii tribe were pushed north across the Alps out of northern Italy by the Romans. They established a new capital called Boiodurum by the Romans (from Gaulish ), now within the Innstadt district of Passau. Passau was an ancient Roman colony called Batavis, Latin for "for the Batavi". The Batavi were an ancient Germanic tribe from area of the Rhine delta who frequently served in the Roman army as auxiliary troops. Batavis (Passau-Altstadt) was a Roman castrum in the province of Raetia, while another late Roman castrum, Boiotro (Passau-Innstadt), was in the province of Noricum. During the second half of the 5th century, St. Severinus established a monastery here. The site was subject to repeated raids by the Alemanni. In 739, the recently consecrated English archbishop Boniface founded the diocese of Passau, which for many years was the largest diocese of the German Kingdom/Holy Roman Empire, covering territory in southern Bavaria and most of what is now Upper and Lower Austria. From the 10th century the bishops of Passau also exercised secular authority as Prince-Bishops in the immediate area around Passau (see ). Before the Holocaust, there was a small Jewish community present in Passau, with Jews being mentioned as early as the 10th century. In the Treaty of Passau (1552), Archduke Ferdinand I, representing Emperor Charles V, secured the agreement of the Protestant princes to submit the religious question to a diet. This led to the Peace of Augsburg in 1555. During the Renaissance and early modern period, Passau was one of the most prolific centres of sword and bladed weapon manufacture in Germany (after Solingen). Passau smiths stamped their blades with the Passau wolf, usually a rather simplified rendering of the wolf…