Spires

Spires (Ger. Speier), the capital of the Bavarian Palatinate, stands on the left bank of the Rhine, 19 miles S. of Mannheim. The most noteworthy edifice is the Romanesque cathedral, built of red sandstone, which has had a very chequered history. Begun by Conrad II. in 1030 and finished in 1061, it suffered from fire in the 12th, 13th, and 16th centuries, and in 1689 was stripped to the bare walls and even set fire to by the French, who also exhumed and scattered the bones of eight emperors of Germany (from Conrad II. to Albert I.) who lay buried in its crypt. Reconstructed in 1782, it was again desecrated by the French in 1794, but was once more rebuilt in 1797–1822. The interior walls are covered with more than thirty large frescoes by Schrandolph; statues of the eight emperors by Fernkorn (1858) adorn the vestibule; and in front of the west façade is the ancient 'Domnapt,' or cathedral basin. The town itself was also demolished by the French in 1689, and having been rebuilt since that date has broad though irregular streets, but very few ancient buildings, except the gateway or clock-tower (alta porta), dating from before 1246, and a few fragments of the imperial palace (Retscher), in which several diets were held. There are a museum, picture-gallery, botanical garden, and library. Pop. 16,064. There is some industry in cloth, paper, tobacco, sugar, &c. Spires was known in Roman times as Augusta Nemetum and Noviomagus, but was known as Spira from the 7th century. Previous to that, however, it had experienced repeated disasters at the hands of the successive barbarian armies that swept westwards. The early emperors showed it considerable favour, and in the 13th century it became a free imperial city. Several imperial diets were held within its walls, especially that of 1529, at which the reformers first acquired the name of Protestants; and from 1513 to 1689 it was the seat of the supreme law-court of the empire. But the repeated devastations it endured in the Thirty Years' War and from the French (see above) ruined its prosperity. It was the capital of a department of France between 1801 and 1814, and in 1815 passed to Bavaria. See works by Remling (1858–61), Weiss (1877), and Hilgard (1885).