Speyer, Germany

Speyer is a city in the southwestern part of Germany, belonging to the federal state of Rhineland-Palatinate. Speyer is picturesquely situated in the Upper Rhine Valley of the Rhine River and is part of the Rhine-Neckar metropolitan region. It is located between the cities of Frankfurt am Main and Karlsruhe, near Mannheim and Heidelberg. Speyer is one of the centers of Jewish culture along the Rhine. 
Speyer originally arose as a settlement. But what is characteristic of it is that it received its status as a city already during Roman antiquity. Speyer was chosen as the capital of the Holy Roman Empire and thanks to its position it received the nickname "the most historically rich city in the Palatinate".
In 1689, the city was destroyed by the troops of Louis XIV, after which it never regained its former importance. Today it is a medium-sized city, remarkable for its ancient appearance and especially for its cathedral, the largest of the surviving cathedrals from the Romanesque period.
The symbol of fame for Speyer is its cathedral, which is the largest preserved church in the world built in the Romanesque era and is included in the UNESCO World Heritage List. Withstanding damage from fires, wars and restorations, the cathedral managed to regain its original form thanks to a series of reconstructions that took place in the period 1957-1961. 
The church today houses the royal tombs of four emperors, three empresses and four German kings, as well as a number of bishops' graves. The cathedral is not only impressive with its exterior, everything in it is unique for the era in which it was built. Several interesting museums can be explored in Speyer, the Palatinate Historical Museum, which still houses items from the city's Jewish history, the Wine Museum, the Technical Museum, and the Maritime Museum.
The Church of the Holy Trinity in Speyer is one of the richly decorated churches along the Rhine, which was built in the 16th century in the Baroque style. Its interior features a beautiful two-story gallery with beautiful wooden ceilings painted by the master who built the Speyer court building, Johann Peter Grabner. 
Of particular importance are the masons from old baths preserved in Speyer, which are associated with the Jewish community. They are the oldest and best-preserved relic of their kind in the country, a poignantly nostalgic reminder of their vanished culture.