Balthasar Neumann

Trained as a military engineer and bell-founder, and the outstanding architect of the South German Baroque. The staircase at Würzburg is roofed by a single unsupported vault that contemporaries expected to fall; it survived the bombing of 1945 when most of the palace did not.

• Lived: 1687 CE – 1753 CE
• Nationality: german
• Roles: architect, engineer