Freising

Freising stands above the Isar, where Saint Corbinian established a monastery and school in the eighth century. A bishopric followed, and its library and scriptorium made the hill a centre of learning. The Romanesque cathedral was completed in 1205; a Gothic vault replaced its wooden ceiling in the late fifteenth century. The prince-bishops ruled lands beyond the town as well as their spiritual diocese.

In 1632 Gustavus Adolphus demanded payment to spare Freising during the Thirty Years' War, yet his Swedish army sacked the city. A further invasion in 1646 brought hunger and plague; a statue of the Virgin raised in 1674 commemorated their passing. Witch trials in the early eighteenth century claimed the lives of several children. Secularisation in 1802–1803 ended the bishop's temporal rule, and the diocesan seat moved to Munich in 1821.