Career
The Residence is considered one of the most beautiful and well proportioned palaces in Europe and the Basilica of the Fourteen Holy Helpers is considered by some as the crowning work of the period. Neumann was an architect of Saint Paulinus" Church in Trier, designing most of the internal elements. His final work is the Church of the Visitation of Mary, a masterpiece of the Baroque style located near Eltmann am Main.
Neumann was born in house Number.
12 on Schiffgasse street, Eger, Kingdom of Bohemia, now known as Cheb, Czechoslovakian Republic, the seventh of nine children of cloth-maker Hans Christoph Neumann. He was baptized on 30 January 1687.
His first apprenticeship was spent working at the foundry of his godfather Balthasar Platzer, but he changed at the beginning of the 18th century to Sebald Koch in where, in 1711, he received his apprenticeship certificate. In 1712, he joined the Franconian artillery as a private because this was the only path to follow for Neumann to have a military career as an engineer
He perfected his skills through studies in the field of fortress architecture.
In 1714 Neumann entered into the service of the Prince-Bishopric of, or secular authority (Hochstift). In 1717 and 1718, he was with the Franconian troops in Austria and Hungary where he worked as an engineer in their Belgrade detachment. In Vienna he became acquainted with the baroque buildings of Johann Bernhard Fischer von Erlach and Johann Lucas von Hildebrandt, training himself in their style.
On a trip to Milan he encountered the works of Guarino Guarini, which inspired Neumann"s future projects.
In 1715, Neumann had already emerged as a rising talent and come to the notice of the Elector of Mainz, Lothar Franz von Schönborn. After a period of time under the direction of the architect Andreas Müller and Joseph Greising, in 1719, Lothar Franz"s nephew, the newly appointed Prince-Bishop of, Johann Philipp von Schönborn, appointed Neumann the chief engineer in Neumann took this position in 1720 after all the planning for the construction of the Residence.
He died in and is buried at the Marienkapelle there. A picture of him could be seen on the former 50 Doctor of Medicine note together with the famous staircase located in the Residence of Neumann was also depicted by Tiepolo in his frescoes for the Residence, in pseudo-military uniform, leaning over a cannon.
He had boasted that the ceiling was so well constructed that not even the roar of a cannon would make the roof fall.