The former residence of the Würzburg prince-bishops is one of the most important baroque palaces in Europe. It was begun for Prince-Bishop Johann Philipp Franz von Schönborn by the then young and unknown architect Balthasar Neumann (1687-1753); the shell of the palace was built from 1720 to 1744 and the interior completed in 1780. By the time the massive building was finished, the gifted architect had also served the brother and second successor of Johann Philipp, Friedrich Carl von Schönborn, and the two following Würzburg prince-bishops. The building costs amounted to a total of around 1.5 million florins – at a time when one florin represented a week's wages for a day labourer this was a massive sum.