Old Gate (Speyer)

The Battle of Speyerbach took place on 15 November 1703 during the War of the Spanish Succession. A French army besieging Landau surprised and defeated a German relief army near Speyer.

Speyer (German: [ˈʃpaɪɐ] , older spelling Speier; Palatine German: Schbaija; French: Spire), historically known in English as Spires, is a city in Rhineland-Palatinate in Germany with approximately 50,000 inhabitants. Located on the left bank of the river Rhine, Speyer lies 25 km (16 miles) south of Ludwigshafen and Mannheim, and 21 km (13 miles) south-west of Heidelberg. Founded by the Romans, it is one of Germany's oldest cities. Speyer Cathedral, a number of other churches, and the Altpörtel ("old gate") dominate the Speyer landscape. In the cathedral, beneath the high altar, are the tombs of eight Holy Roman Emperors and German kings. The city is famous for the 1529 Protestation at Speyer. One of the ShUM-cities which formed the cultural center of Jewish life in Europe during the Middle Ages, Speyer and its Jewish courtyard was inscribed on the UNESCO World Heritage List in 2021.

The Ägidienkirche was a church in the German city of Speyer. Dedicated to saint Giles, it was founded around 1140 as part of a hospital complex by bishop Burchard on land owned by himself and his mother in what was then the city outskirts. In 1148, after his mother's death, he granted it to the Augustinian canonry at Hördt. It soon became one of Speyer's parish churches, with clergy supplied or appointed by the canonry. Its last Roman Catholic priest, Jost Neblich, was presented in 1565. The Protestant Frederick III, Elector Palatine took control of the canonry in 1566, forcibly expelled the canons from the Ägidienkirche and in spring 1572 installed its first Protestant pastor, Johann Willing. Leopold V's troops occupied Speyer during the Thirty Years War and he handed the church over to a new Capuchin foundation in the city on 1 May 1623. It was in such a poor state that they laid the foundation stone for a new hall church, designed by the Capuchin brother Peter of Cologne, completed in 1628 and costing Leopold 10,000 florins. The bishop of Speyer ordered that the new church's main altar retain the dedication to St Giles. New monastic buildings and hospitals were also built on the old site. The Capuchins were expelled in 1650 following the Peace of Westphalia and a priest was even dragged from the altar during mass. The new church became a Protestant parish church, although the monastery was given back to the Capuchins in 1688 when the French took control of the areas during the Nine Years War, although it was damaged when the French burned the city the following year. Monks had returned by 1694 and the order's minister general visited early in 1766. It refused the Civil Constitution of the Clergy after the French occupied the city in the War of the First Coalition but returned to the monastery in 1796. The Treaty of Campo Formio in 1797 formally annexed Speyer to France and the following year the monastery was declared state property and the church made the city's main parish church, since it was planned to demolish the city's ruined cathedral. Instead the cathedral was saved and the monastery sold off in 1806, though the deconsecrated church (by then a tobacco store) was acquired by the Kingdom of Bavaria in 1807 for use as a customs warehouse. In 1979 it was turned into a community centre named the Ägidienhaus.

The Gedächtniskirche der Protestation (English: The Memorial Church of the Protestation) is a United Protestant church of both Lutheran and Reformed confessions in Speyer, Rhineland-Palatinate, Germany, that commemorates the Protestation at Speyer in defense of the evangelical faith, specifically Lutheranism. Built between 1893 and 1904, the church was constructed in memory of the protest that took place at the Diet of Speyer by the Protestant rulers of the Holy Roman Empire in 1529. The tower is the tallest bell tower in the whole Palatinate at 100 metres (330 ft).

The Stadtarchiv Speyer is the oldest municipal archive of the Palatinate. The earliest document, which is kept in the city archives of Speyer, is a document of emperor Friedrich I of 1182, in which the privileges granted by emperor Heinrich V to the town of Speyer in 1111 were confirmed and extended. The tradition of the archive dates back to the late 13th century, when Speyer became a Free Imperial Town of the Holy Roman Empire in 1294. Now it is one of the oldest offices in Speyer. In addition to a large number of historically important documents and archives, it also offers today a large collection of photo and newspaper collections,

The Dreifaltigkeitskirche (English: Trinity Church) is a late Baroque, Protestant parish church in Speyer, Rhineland-Palatinate, Germany. Since 1988 it has been a cultural asset worthy of protection within the meaning of Article 1 of the Hague Convention for the Protection of Cultural Property in the Event of Armed Conflict.

The Jewish courtyard in Speyer (also known as the Speyer Jewry-Court), is an historic and archeological site located in the inner city of Speyer, Germany. Built in stages between 1104 (when the synagogue was consecrated) and the 14th century, the courtyard contains some of the oldest and best-preserved Jewish community buildings. Along with the other ShUM-cities of Worms and Mainz, Speyer was the hometown of one of the most important Jewish communities in Middle Ages in northern Europe. Because of its historical importance and its testimony to the European Jewish cultural tradition, the Jewish courtyard was inscribed on the UNESCO World Heritage List in 2021.

Speyer Hauptbahnhof is the more important of the two railway stations in the city of Speyer in the German state of Rhineland-Palatinate.

The Historical Museum of the Palatinate (German: Historisches Museum der Pfalz) is a museum in the city of Speyer in the Palatinate region of the German state of Rhineland-Palatinate. It is situated across the square from the Speyer Cathedral. The museum's focus is on the History of the Palatinate; it has a collection of about 1 million artifacts, the oldest being an approximately 190,000-year-old hand axe. The museum is among the most important in Germany, and is known for its special exhibitions. With over 200,000 visitors per year it is one of the major attractions of Speyer.The museum is a trust borne by the City of Speyer, the Evangelical Church of the Palatinate, the Roman Catholic Diocese of Speyer, the State of Rhineland-Palatinate, the Historical Society of the Palatinate, and the Bezirksverband Palz (County Association).

Speyer Cathedral, officially the Imperial Cathedral Basilica of the Assumption and St Stephen, in Latin: Domus sanctae Mariae Spirae (German: Dom zu Unserer lieben Frau in Speyer) in Speyer, Germany, is the seat of the Roman Catholic Bishop of Speyer and is suffragan to the Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Bamberg. The cathedral, which is dedicated to St. Mary, patron saint of Speyer ("Patrona Spirensis") and St. Stephen is generally known as the Kaiserdom zu Speyer (Imperial Cathedral of Speyer). Pope Pius XI raised Speyer Cathedral to the rank of a minor basilica of the Roman Catholic Church in 1925. Begun in 1030 under Conrad II, with the east end and high vault of 1090–1103, the imposing triple-aisled vaulted basilica of red sandstone is the "culmination of a design which was extremely influential in the subsequent development of Romanesque architecture during the 11th and 12th centuries". As the burial site for Salian, Staufer and Habsburg emperors and kings the cathedral is regarded as a symbol of imperial power. With the Abbey of Cluny in ruins, it remains the largest Romanesque church. It is considered to be "a turning point in European architecture", one of the most important architectural monuments of its time and one of the finest Romanesque monuments.In 1981, the cathedral was added to the UNESCO World Heritage List of culturally important sites as "a major monument of Romanesque art in the German Empire".

The Diocese of Speyer (Latin: Dioecesis Spirensis) is a Latin diocese of the Catholic Church in Germany. The diocese is located in the South of the Rhineland-Palatinate and comprises also the Saarpfalz district in the east of the Saarland. The bishop's see is in the Palatinate city of Speyer. The current bishop is Karl-Heinz Wiesemann. As of 31 December 2006, 44.5% of the population of the diocese was Catholic.

The Speyer Brezelfest is an annual Volksfest (beer festival and travelling funfair) in honour of the pretzel in the city of Speyer, Germany, running the second weekend of July from Thursday-evening to Tuesday-night.