Bayreuth (bīroit') [key], city (1994 pop. 73,390), capital of Upper Franconia, Bavaria, S Germany, on the Red Main River. It is an industrial center; its manufactures include machinery, textiles, chemicals, and pianos. Founded in the mid-12th cent., Bayreuth belonged to a branch of the Hohenzollern family from 1248 to 1791, when it was annexed by Prussia. It was taken by France in 1807 and passed to Bavaria in 1810. Richard Wagner lived in Bayreuth from 1872 to 1883, and the annual Bayreuth Festival is held in the Festspielhaus, an opera house designed by Wagner and built in 1872–76. Wagner and Franz Liszt are buried in Bayreuth.
