Archdiocese of Munich and Freising
Catholic archdiocese in Germany
The Archdiocese of Munich and Freising (German: Erzbistum München und Freising, Latin: Archidioecesis Monacensis et Frisingensis) is a Latin Church ecclesiastical territory or diocese of the Catholic Church in Bavaria, Germany. It is governed by the Archbishop of Munich and Freising, who administers the see from the co-cathedral in Munich, the Frauenkirche. The other, much older co-cathedral is Freising Cathedral.
The see was canonically erected in about 739 by Saint Boniface as the Diocese of Freising, and later became a prince-bishopric. The diocese was dissolved in 1803 following the collapse of the Holy Roman Empire, although a titular bishop ruled until April 1, 1818, when Pope Pius VII elevated the diocese to an archdiocese with its new seat in Munich, rather than Freising.
The archdiocese is divided into 40 deaneries with 758 parishes. Its suffragan bishops are those of Augsburg, Passau, and Regensburg.
The most notable archbishop was Joseph Ratzinger, who was elected as Pope Benedict XVI.
The residence of the archbishops of Munich and Freising is the Palais Holnstein in Munich, very close to the Munich Cathedral (Frauendom). The official archives and library for the archdiocese is also very close to the Palais Holnstein.
The public source identifies “Archdiocese of Munich and Freising” as catholic archdiocese in Germany. This brief keeps that definition visible, then builds a research path around Archdiocese, Munich and Freising.
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Named sources, stable identifiers and responsible institutions provide the strongest route from overview to verifiable evidence. The source revision retrieved here is dated Jun 15, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q219133. VIAF identifies the subject as 124394700. The Library of Congress control number is n85043550. Authority coordinates are 48.139, 11.574. 2 of 5 selected statements include explicit references; 1 carry qualifiers and 0 use preferred rank. The first chronological checks are 1803 and 1818.
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This entry incorporates text from “Archdiocese of Munich and Freising” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.