Gedenkraum 16. März 1945

Gedenkraum 16. März 1945 occupies a memorial room inside the Residenz, Würzburg’s former palace of the prince-bishops. Photographs show the city’s ruined old town and the fire-damaged palace after the Second World War air raid.

On 16 March 1945, explosive and incendiary bombs killed around five thousand people in Würzburg. Flames destroyed nearly every roof, wooden ceiling, and floor within the Residenz, while its vaulted rooms survived. A caretaker’s desperate report brings the period’s hardships into sharper focus. The room also follows John Davis Skilton, who reached Würzburg on 18 June 1945 and organised emergency protection for the remaining interiors. Temporary coverings shielded Giovanni Battista Tiepolo’s frescoes, Antonio Bossi’s stucco, and Balthasar Neumann’s staircase.

A watercolor portrait and personal testimonies recall Skilton’s contribution to preserving these cultural treasures. The room’s interior design later received an IF Design Award in 2016 and a German Design Award special mention in 2017. Looking from images of burned-out rooms toward the surviving vaults, you see both the scale of destruction and the fragile work of rescue.