cathedral. Its centre, the Jews� Court (Judenhof), contained men�s and women�s synagogue and the mikveh. The ruins of the Speyer Synagogue are the oldest visible remnants of such a building in central Europe. The mikveh, first mentioned in 1126, has remained almost unchanged to this day and is still supplied by fresh groundwater.
For two centuries the Speyer Jewish community was among the most important of the Empire and, in spite of pogroms, persecution and expulsion, had considerable influence on Ashkenazi culture and the spiritual and cultural life of the town. Nevertheless, anti-Semitism and persecution was no less virulent in Speyer than in other places and with one notable exception the Jewish community shared the fate of most others.
The Yiddish surnames of Spira, Shapira, Spier and Shapiro probably derive from Shpira (?????), the Hebrew name of Speyer.
In the battle Z�lpich 496/497 and another one near Strasbourg in 506 the Franks under their king Chlodwig (Clovis I) beat the Alamanni and Speyer became part of the Frankish Kingdom. The administration was reorganized and Romanized civil servants and bishops from southern Gaul were transferred to the Rhine. The new administrative unit of Speyer was similar to that of the civitas Nemetum.
In 346 AD Speyer was mentioned for the first time as a diocesan town, but Christianity had been suppressed by the heathen Alemanni. Under the Franks, whose king Chlodwig had converted, the diocese was re-established in the 5th century and extended to territories east of the Rhine. Travel routes opened to the west and trade also picked up.
The first churches and monasteries were built in the 6th and 7th centuries, among them not only the earliest verifiable church of St. Germain, but also a bishop�s church, of which the patrons saints Maria and Stephen were named in 662/664. Bishop Hilderic of Speyer is mentioned in the records as a participant of the synod of Paris in 614. St. Germain was to
