Eichstätt


Eichstätt is a town in the federal state of Bavaria, Germany, and capital of the district of Eichstätt. It is located on the Altmühl river and has a population of around 13,000. Eichstätt is also the seat of the Roman Catholic Diocese of Eichstätt.

Geography

Location

Eichstätt lies on both sides of the river Altmühl in the district of Eichstätt of the Oberbayern region of Bavaria, in the heart of Altmühl Valley Nature Park.

Geology

Eichstätt is located in a valley of the Franconian Jura and is famous for the quarries of Solnhofen Plattenkalk. On the Blumenberg the Berlin specimen of Archaeopteryx was found by Jakob Niemeyer.

History

St. Willibald founded the Diocese of Eichstätt on the site of an old Roman station in 741. The city was given walls and chartered in 908. It was ruled by a prince-bishop, and in the Holy Roman Empire was the seat of the Bishopric of Eichstätt until secularization in 1802. In 1806, it became a part of the Kingdom of Bavaria. Eichstätt was included as part of the Principality of Eichstätt, which King Maximilian I granted to his son-in-law Eugène de Beauharnais in 1817 and an episcopal see was reestablished in 1821. It reverted to the Bavarian crown in 1855.
In 870, the remains of St. Walpurga were transferred from their original Heidenheim interment to Eichstätt, where in 1035 the newer burial site was enshrined as the Benedictine Abbey of St. Walburga, which continues to this day.
In 1943, the painter Karl Friedrich Lippmann moved to Eichstätt and stayed until 1955.
Hortus Eystettensis is the name of an important botanical book first published in 1613 and written by Basilius Besler.

World War II

Allied prisoners of war were held in Eichstätt during World War II. Activities carried on by the prisoners there included attempted escapes and the production of plays and musical works. These included Hamlet and the Comedy of Errors by William Shakespeare, the premiere of Post-Mortem by Noël Coward and of the by Benjamin Britten.

Attractions

The town is dominated by the Willibaldsburg. Besides the cathedral, Eichstätt also sports numerous churches and monasteries.

Mayors

Eichstätt is home to the Katholische Universität Eichstätt-Ingolstadt, the lone Catholic university in Germany. The KU was founded in 1980, and was granted full rights of a university, including Ph.D. and Habilitation degrees by the State of Bavaria.

Sons and daughters of the town