Speyer
Collier's New Encyclopedia (1921)
SPEIER or Spires), the capital of the Bavarian Palatinate and the seat of a bishop; on the Rhine, 14 miles S. W. of Heidelberg. The most important buildings are the cathedral, the Hall of Antiquities, the Altpörtel, and the remains of the Retscher or imperial palace. The cathedral, reckoned the finest specimen of Romanesque architecture in Europe, was founded in 1030 by Konrad II. as a burial place for himself and his successors, and completed in 1061 by his grandson, Heinrich IV., the opponent of Pope Gregory the Great. On several occasions it suffered severely at the hands of the French, especially in 1794, when it was turned into a barn; but in 1822 it was reconstructed, and in 1858 the work of restoration was completed. Its length is 485 feet, breadth of nave nearly 50 feet, height of the four towers 237 feet. The interior is richly decorated with some of the finest specimens of modern German art. Speyer has cigar and vinegar works, and does a little transit trade on the Rhine. Under the Romans Speyer was known as Augusto Nemetum, and during the Middle Ages it was a place of considerable importance, 29 imp imperial diets having been held within its walls, at one of which (1529) the Reformers offered the protest which procured for them the name of Protestants. During the wars of Louis XIV. in the Palatinate, Speyer was several times sacked by the French, and in 1689 the whole town was committed to the flames. Pop. about 25,000.
What Has Changed in the Last Century
Speyer is no longer Bavarian: when Collier's wrote this in 1921 the city was capital of the Bavarian Palatinate, but after 1945 the Palatinate was detached from Bavaria and Speyer became part of the new state of Rhineland-Palatinate. The cathedral came through the Second World War largely intact and was made a UNESCO World Heritage Site in 1981, though the restoration of 1957 inebreak71 stripped out much of the "finest specimens of modern German art" Collier's admired inebreak the 19th-century Nazarene frescoes by Johann Schraudolph, some of which survive in a side hall. The cigar and vinegar works are gone; today's population is roughly double the 25,000 given, and the city is better known for its Palatinate history museum and its aircraft-and-locomotive technology museum. One small correction: the pope Heinrich IV opposed was Gregory VII, not Gregory the Great.
Written for this edition, 2026.