The story of this place
The Marienberg Fortress, on a vine-clad hill above the Main, was for five centuries the seat of the prince-bishops of Würzburg. Its origins reach back to a Celtic hill-fort and an early medieval church, one of the oldest in Germany. During the Thirty Years' War, the fortress was considered impregnable — until the night of 18 October 1631, when the army of the Swedish king Gustavus Adolphus stormed it in a surprise assault, sacking the treasury and library. The bishops afterwards rebuilt it as a mighty Baroque fortress with vast bastions. Damaged by bombing in 1945, it was restored and now houses museums of Würzburg's history and Franconian art, its ramparts offering the classic view over the city's spires and the Old Main Bridge.