Speyer (English formerly Spires) is a city in the state of Rhineland-Palatinate with about 50,000 inhabitants on the Rhine river. It lies 25 kilometres south of Ludwigshafen and Mannheim. Around the year 500 the town gets the name Spira, named after the stream Speyerbach which flows into the Rhine river here.
Speyer Cathedral
The center of Speyer is dominated by the Speyer Cathedral. Here are the tombs of several of the Salian emperors: the bodies, however, are believed to have gone missing during one of the French invasions during the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries.
Here is a photographic impression of the city of Speyer