WÜRZBURG (Herbipolis), DIOCESE of. — City and diocese in Germany. It has an area of 11,018 sq. km. and a population of 1,480,624, of whom 872,941 are Catholics, distributed among 492 parishes served by 788 diocesan priests and 270 religious priests; it has two seminaries, 37 male and 666 female religious communities (Ann. Pont. 1953, p. 457).
The first mention of W. dates to 704: Castellum Wirteburch; s. Bonifacio founded the episcopal see there (741). The emperor Corrado II granted the bishop many privileges (1030), including the right to mint coins. The power of the bishops extended in the 12th century to eastern Franconia, so much so that they became dukes of Franconia. The ecclesiastical principality of W. was secularized in 1832 and passed to Bavaria in 1814.
The Cathedral, dedicated to s. Chiliano, is Romanesque in its overall structure and dates from the 12th century, although its interior underwent Baroque decoration and transformations. The church of S. Burcardo is Romanesque, but was enlarged in the Gothic period; noteworthy is the wooden bust of the Madonna, a work by T. Riemenschneider (1490). In Marienberg Castle, the centrally planned chapel dates from 704. The Franciscan church dates from 1250–1300. In the market stands the artistic chapel of the B. Virgin (1377–1470), from whose portal come the two statues of Adam and Eve, a work by Riemenschneider (1493). The University church (1586–1591) was rebuilt by the architect A. Petrini (1696). The Romanesque church of Neumünster was converted to the Baroque style by Greising, who added the dome and façade; the interior depicts ss. Chiliano, Colomano and Totnan, Irish apostles of Franconia.
The succession of bishops from the Schönborn family enriched W. with Baroque buildings, and between 1719 and 1770 the prince-bishops embellished the episcopal residence according to designs by the Viennese L. von Hildebraidt and M. von Welsch of Mainz. The staircase, the White Hall and the Imperial Hall were frescoed by G. B. Tiepolo. Bishop Julius Echter von Mespelbrunn (1573–1617) founded Julius Hospital in 1579 and, in 1582, commissioned the architect W. Beringer to rebuild the University, founded on 10 Dec. 1402 by Bishop Giovanni Egloffstein with the approval of Bonifacio IX, according to a design by C. Robin.