tween Worms and Cologne.
Around 475 there was a new small settlement called Winternheim, 2 km south of the fort, right at the edge of the high banks of the Rhine. Surprisingly, this site contained finds from the northern Germanic tribe of the Saxons. Because of similar finds further north near Mainz and Trier it is assumed, that tribes other than Alamanni settled in the area. Winternheim, probably a village of weavers, existed until the 12th century and had its own parish church, St. Ulric. Around the same time another settlement, Altspeyer, developed in the area of today�s main train station, also called Villa Spira. The fort most likely still existed around 500 but the extent of the Romanized population is not known. The population change is reflected in the name of Speyer: antique Noviomagus / Nemetum became medieval Spira, indicating that Latin was no longer spoken.
The area of the Palatinate was eventually settled by Franks permanently and became part of the emerging Frankish Empire. With the partition of the Empire among the sons of Clovis I in 512, Speyer fell to the eastern Frankish kingdom of Austrasia. It is assumed that the bishopric succumbed in the migration period and was re-established in the 5th century. 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. Administratively, the Franks followed the example of their Roman predecessors and Speyer became the seat of the Speyergau (county) with roughly the same outlines as the previous Roman Civitas Nemetum. Initially, lord of town and county was a Comes (Gaugraf) appointed by the king but through the following centuries the kings passed more and more rights to the bishops. Sigebert III, for example, granted the bishop the tithe of all royal estates in the Speyergau around 650 and the church was exempt from
