The story of this place
Built from 1720 for the prince-bishops of Würzburg by architect Balthasar Neumann, this palace is a masterpiece of European Baroque. Above its grand staircase stretches the world's largest fresco, painted by Giambattista Tiepolo in 1752–53, depicting the four continents beneath a swirling heaven — a ceiling so daringly vaulted that critics predicted it would collapse. On 16 March 1945 a British air raid burned Würzburg to the ground in seventeen minutes, gutting the Residence; yet Neumann's unsupported vault held, and the Tiepolo fresco survived above the flames. American army officer John Skilton famously improvised a roof to save the ceiling from the weather. Restored over decades, the palace became a UNESCO World Heritage Site in 1981.