The House of Wittelsbach is a former Bavarian dynasty, with branches that have ruled over territories including the Electorate of Bavaria, the Electoral Palatinate, the Electorate of Cologne, Holland, Zeeland, Sweden, Denmark, Norway, Hungary, Bohemia, and Greece. Their ancestral lands of Bavaria and the Palatinate were prince-electorates, and the family had three of its members elected emperors and kings of the Holy Roman Empire. They ruled over the Kingdom of Bavaria which was created in 1805 and continued to exist until 1918.
The history of Bavaria stretches from its earliest settlement and its formation as a stem duchy in the 6th century through its inclusion in the Holy Roman Empire to its status as an independent kingdom and finally as a large Bundesland (state) of the Federal Republic of Germany. Originally settled by Celtic peoples such as the Boii, by the 1st century BC it was eventually conquered and incorporated into the Roman Empire as the provinces of Raetia and Noricum.
Upper Bavaria is one of the seven administrative districts of Bavaria, Germany.
Ingolstadt is an independent city on the Danube in Upper Bavaria with 139,553 inhabitants. Around half a million people live in the metropolitan area. Ingolstadt is the second largest city in Upper Bavaria after Munich and the fifth largest city in Bavaria after Munich, Nuremberg, Augsburg and Regensburg. The city passed the mark of 100,000 inhabitants in 1989 and has since been one of the major cities in Germany. After Regensburg, Ingolstadt is the second largest German city on the Danube.
Landshut is a town in Bavaria in the south-east of Germany. Situated on the banks of the River Isar, Landshut is the capital of Lower Bavaria, one of the seven administrative regions of the Free State of Bavaria. It is also the seat of the surrounding district and has a population of more than 75,000. Landshut is the largest city in Lower Bavaria, followed by Passau and Straubing, and Eastern Bavaria's second after Regensburg.
The Duchy of Bavaria was a frontier region in the southeastern part of the Merovingian kingdom from the sixth through the eighth century. It was settled by Bavarian tribes and ruled by dukes (duces) under Frankish overlordship. A new duchy was created from this area during the decline of the Carolingian Empire in the late ninth century. It became one of the stem duchies of the East Frankish realm which evolved as the Kingdom of Germany and the Holy Roman Empire.
Albert III the Pious of Bavaria-Munich, since 1438 Duke of Bavaria-Munich. He was the son of Ernest, Duke of Bavaria and Elisabetta Visconti, daughter of Bernabò Visconti.
Bavaria-Straubing denotes the widely scattered territorial inheritance in the Wittelsbach house of Bavaria that were governed by independent dukes of Bavaria-Straubing between 1353 and 1432; a map (illustration) of these marches and outliers of the Holy Roman Empire, vividly demonstrates the fractionalisation of lands where primogeniture did not obtain. In 1349, after Emperor Louis IV's death, his sons divided Bavaria once again: Lower Bavaria passed to Stephan II, William and Albert. In 1353, Lower Bavaria was further partitioned into Bavaria-Landshut and Bavaria-Straubing: William and Albert received a part of the Lower Bavarian inheritance, with a capital in Straubing and rights to Hainaut and Holland. Thus the dukes of Bavaria-Straubing were also counts of Hainaut, counts of Holland, and of Zeeland.
Stephen II was Duke of Bavaria from 1347 until his death. He was the second son of Emperor Louis IV the Bavarian by his first wife Beatrice of Silesia and a member of the Wittelsbach dynasty.
Burghausen is the largest town in the Altötting district of Upper Bavaria in Germany. It is situated on the Salzach river, near the border with Austria. Burghausen Castle rests along a ridgeline, and is the longest castle in the world.
Henry XVI of Bavaria, , since 1393 Duke of Bavaria-Landshut. He was a son of duke Frederick and his wife Maddalena Visconti, a daughter of Bernabò Visconti.
Louis IX was Duke of Bavaria-Landshut from 1450. He was a son of Henry XVI the Rich and Margaret of Austria. Louis was the founder of the University of Ingolstadt.
George of Bavaria referred to as the Rich, was the last duke of Bavaria-Landshut. He was a son of Louis IX the Rich and Amalia of Saxony.
Bavaria-Ingolstadt was a duchy which was part of the Holy Roman Empire from 1392 to 1447.
Bavaria-Munich was a duchy that was a constituent state of the Holy Roman Empire from 1392 to 1505.
Burghausen Castle in Burghausen, Upper Bavaria, is the longest castle complex in the world, confirmed by the Guinness World Record company.
Maddalena Visconti was a daughter of Bernabò Visconti and his wife Beatrice Regina della Scala. Maddalena was Duchess of Bavaria-Landshut by her marriage to Frederick, Duke of Bavaria.
The Bavarian War from 1420 to 1422, also known as the Great War of the Lords, was a conflict between Louis VII the Bearded of Bayern-Ingolstadt and Henry XVI of Bavaria-Landshut. The conflict overshadowed Louis VII's reign, which lasted more than thirty years.
Jakob Sandtner was a master turner and lived in the 16th century. For his time, he made amazingly precise city models of some Bavarian cities. The models are important cultural-historical documents and are among the oldest reliable city models.
