Passau

Passau stands where the Inn and the Ilz join the Danube, earning it the name of the Three Rivers City. Roman forts once guarded the meeting of the waters, and in 739 Boniface founded the bishopric of Passau. Its diocese grew to encompass much of Bavaria and Austria, while from the tenth century its bishops also exercised secular authority over the city and its surroundings.

In 1552 the Treaty of Passau brought an agreement between Ferdinand, acting for Emperor Charles V, and the Protestant princes; the religious question was to be submitted to an imperial diet, leading to the Peace of Augsburg three years later. The city's smiths were famed for their swords, often stamped with the Passau wolf, a mark believed by some soldiers to protect its bearer. A great fire consumed much of Passau in 1662, after which the city was rebuilt in the Baroque style. The prince-bishopric was secularised in 1803.