Bruchsal Palace was built by Damian Hugo von Schönborn, the Bishop of Speyer, beginning in 1720, and is one of a series of baroque residence palaces established in Southwestern Germany following the end of the Palatinate War of Succession and the preceding armed (and therefore destructive) conflicts. Von Schönborn did not rebuild the old Speyer residence destroyed in 1689, but instead decided on a representative new building modeled on Versailles. With the location in Bruchsal, the holder of religious and secular power also avoided continual conflicts with the Protestant "Reichsstadt" (free imperial city) of Speyer.
The architect's drawing of the new residence palace provided for a strongly individualistic, expansive overall complex divided up into over 50 separate buildings. All functions of a seat of government were grouped around the central "Corps de Logis" (Hauptbau - Main Building). Together with the "Hauptbau", the "Kirchenflügel" (Church Wing) and the "Kammerflügel" (Administrative Wing) are positioned around the "Ehrenhof" (Court of Honor), however were at first not connected. To these were added the administrative building, barracks, riding course, stables, gate buildings with the palace guard, and behind the Corps de Logis the "Kavaliershäuser" (Noblemen's Houses) and a magnificent palace garden. One reason for this "breaking down" into various buildings lay, according to Damian Hugo von Schönborn, in the experience gained from the past wars. In the case of a fire, only part of the residence would be destroyed.
Building began in 1721 with the two pavilions on the sides of the gate house, the "Hofkontrollhaus" and the "Hofzahlhaus" (financial administration of the bishopric). At first the Prince Bishop, who himself constantly intervened in the planning process, employed several local architects in succession, including Maximilian von Welsch, who was replaced by Anselm Franz Freiherr von Ritter zu Grünstein in 1725. The latter designed the oval staircase which, with the middle floor (Mezzaningeschoß) required by Schönborn, presented him with virtually insurmountable construction problems, as the staircase now led to the servants' floor and not to the "Bel Etage" (principal floor).
In 1728 the very busy Balthasar Neumann took on the botched structure at the rulers request and designed the famous staircase with its three-dimensional effect that is still very impressive today.
Under Neumann the remaining sections of the Hauptbau, facade decorations on the Corps de Logis, the gate guard house and the church spire were erected.
Between 1733 and 1736 the construction work on the residence was interrupted by the ravages of war, and von Schönborn was force to flee before the French Occupation for three years. When he died in 1743 he left his successor an economically successful bishopric with a modern administrative system. Under Cardinal Christoph von Hutten the rococo decorations in the state-rooms of the Corps de Logis were added together with the Portal and balcony extensions in the course of final work.