dates to the 16th century. It shows a banner on a tilted lance, formerly in a blue field, with the banner quarterly argent and gules (1532), later or and gules (1550). This coat of arms replaced the older seal of the city, showing Saint Kilian, from 1570.
The W�rzburg witch trials, which occurred between 1626 and 1631, are one of the largest peace-time mass trials. In W�rzburg, under Bishop Philip Adolf an estimated number between six hundred and nine hundred witches were burnt. In 1631, Swedish King Gustaf Adolf invaded the town and destroyed the castle. In 1720, the foundations of the W�rzburg Residence were laid. The city passed to the Electorate of Bavaria in 1803, but two years later, in the course of the Napoleonic Wars, it became the seat of the Electorate of W�rzburg, the later Grand Duchy of W�rzburg. In 1814, the town became part of the Kingdom of Bavaria and a new bishopric was created seven years later, as the former one had been secularized in 1803.
On 16 March 1945, about 90% of the city full of civilians was destroyed in 17 minutes by 225 British Lancaster bombers during a World War II air raid. All of the city's churches, cathedrals, and other monuments were heavily damaged or destroyed. The city center, which dated from medieval times, was totally destroyed in a firestorm in which 5,000 people perished. Over the next 20 years, the buildings of historical importance were painstakingly and accurately replicated. The citizens who rebuilt the city immediately after the end of the war were mostly women � Tr�mmerfrauen ("rubble women") � because the men were either dead or taken prisoner of war. In comparison, W�rzburg was destroyed to a larger extent than was Dresden in a firebombing the previous month.
On April 3, 1945, W�rzburg was attacked by the US 12th Armored Division and US 42nd Infantry Division in a series of frontal assaults masked by smokescreens. The battle continued until the final German resistance was defeated 5 April
