 |
|
 Forchheim
The "Kaiserpfalz" II |
|
 Since the election of Konrad I in 911 as the first purely East Franconian king, the town has even been able to regard itself as the cradle of the later Holy Roman Empire.
In 1007 Heinrich II (Henry II) donated the royal court of Forchheim along with its possessions to the bishopric of Bamberg, which he had just founded, and consequently for 800 years until the secularisation of the diocese it belonged to its sphere of influence.
|
|
 |
|
|
|
 |
|
In 1077 Forchheim was the scene of a dramatic event with far-reaching political consequences. For although Emperor Heinrich IV (Henry IV) who had been excommunicated did penance to the pope on his famous journey to Canossa, the imperial princes gathered in Forchheim declared him deposed and elected his brother-in-law Rudolf von Rheinfelden as a rival king.
From then on the bishop rulers determined the town’s history. Because it was a second residence and a place of refuge for the prince-bishops, the mighty ring of fortifications round Forchheim with its bastions, outworks and baroque decorations was developed in a building program that lasted two hundred years from 1552.  |
|
 |
|
|
