ABSTRACT
Eichstatt lies on the river Altmuhl, which possessed a supra-regional economic function as transit route from the duchy of Bavaria into the kingdom of the Franks. The place was also a centre for an early medieval iron-mining region. Dioceses as a rule possessed special saints under whose protection and shield they placed themselves. The saints provided identity for bishoprics. The extension, as well as the demarcation, of the western part of the diocese of Eichstatt took place with the help of the monasteries of Herrieden and Heidenheim. Until far into the eleventh century the Eichstatt bishops had progressively added secular rights to their spiritual rights as head of the diocese. This could only take place with royal support, which in the case of Eichstatt was rather poorly developed. Eichstatt's political significance, together with its cathedral school, was greatest in the eleventh century.
