Where to Stay in Speyer, Rheinland-Pfalz

What is Speyer known for?

Speyer Cathedral holds the tombs of eight Holy Roman Emperors and German kings beneath its high altar, and the Altpörtel, the Historical Museum of the Palatinate and the Technik Museum Speyer fill out the rest of a compact list. Churches come in numbers. The Gedächtniskirche, the Josephskirche Speyer and the Dreifaltigkeitskirche are three of the ten counted here, and Museum SchPIRA covers a different part of the city's past.

What are the main landmarks in Speyer?

Three things dominate the landscape. Speyer Cathedral, the Altpörtel and a run of churches from the Heiliggeistkirche to the Ägidienkirche account for most of what stands above the roofline of the old town. Museums split the indoor list.

The Technik Museum Speyer, the Historical Museum of the Palatinate, Museum SchPIRA and the Elwedritsche Museum divide the indoor hours four ways, while the Stauferstele in Speyer and the Wilhelmsbau stand outside that scheme.

What is the history of Speyer?

The Romans built here first. Speyer goes back to 150, founded as a fortified town on the frontier of the Roman empire, and it is counted among the oldest cities in Germany. A Samian ware discovery site is recorded in Speyer itself, and the find keeps its own entry among the city's named places.

The bishops came next. Speyer has been a diocesan town since 346, and its first churches and monasteries went up in the sixth and seventh centuries. The cathedral collected the emperors.

Beneath the high altar of Speyer Cathedral lie the tombs of eight Holy Roman Emperors and German kings, which is the single fact that fixes the city's place in the medieval record. Religious orders took ground here. The Augustinian Monastery and the Beginenhaus zum Rotenschild are two of the houses recorded in the city, and the Stauferstele in Speyer stands among them as a marker rather than a building.

English once called it Spires. The two names cover the same place, and the second one is what the Historical Museum of the Palatinate and Museum SchPIRA document from inside the old town. Few German cities carry a longer line.

Where is Speyer?

Speyer keeps to the left bank. The city covers about 43 square kilometres beside the Rhine, 25 kilometres from Ludwigshafen and Mannheim and 21 from Heidelberg, which puts three other cities inside an easy radius. Berghausen lies nearby.

The old town stays compact, and the distance to Heidelberg or Mannheim is short enough that the city works as a base for the whole stretch of the Rhine between them.

What is the climate of Speyer?

Seasons here are clearly marked. Speyer lies in the temperate band north of the equator, and the Rhine beside it means the warm half of the year pulls people out of the old town and onto the water, while the cold half sends them back inside. Rain finds the museums.

The Technik Museum Speyer takes a whole wet day without complaint, and the Historical Museum of the Palatinate and Museum SchPIRA cover the rest of it.

How do you get to Speyer?

Mannheim and Ludwigshafen are the nearest big names. Speyer lies 25 kilometres south of both, with Heidelberg 21 kilometres away, so arrival usually means a short leg from one of the three rather than a journey of its own. The old town does the rest.

Speyer Cathedral, the Altpörtel and the Historical Museum of the Palatinate are all inside it, and the Technik Museum Speyer is the one stop that a car makes easier.