Eichstätt is located in a valley of the Franconian Jura and is famous for the quarries of Solnhofen Plattenkalk (Jurassic limestone).

[3] In 870, the remains of St. Walpurga were transferred from their original Heidenheim interment to Eichstätt, where in 1035 the newer burial site was enshrined as the Benedictine Abbey of St. Walburga, which continues to this day.

Hortus Eystettensis ("Garden at Eichstätt") is the name of an important botanical book first published in 1613 and written by Basilius Besler.

These included Hamlet and the Comedy of Errors by William Shakespeare, the premiere of Post-Mortem by Noël Coward - featuring Desmond Llewelyn,[6] later best known as Q in the EON Bond movies - and of the Ballad of Little Musgrave and Lady Barnard by Benjamin Britten.

The KU was founded in 1980, and was granted full rights of a university, including Ph.D. and Habilitation degrees by the State of Bavaria.