The House of Schönborn, especially its ruling prelates of the Roman Catholic Church, were among the most important builders of Southern German baroque architecture.

A secondary source of 1670 mentions an earlier Eucharius von Schönborn of the mid 12th century, however without documentary proof.

The elder branch resided at Schönborn and held the office of Burgmann at Burgschwalbach, a castle built between 1354 and 1371 by count Eberhard V. of Katzenelnbogen.

Johann Philipp von Schönborn of Eschbach, son of a minor nobleman in the employ of the then Lutheran counts of Wied, became a Catholic priest in the impoverished times of the Thirty Years' War.

Johann Philipp was the first of six members of the Schönborn family who, in the course of more than three generations, were to rule over eight of the most prestigious ecclesiastical principalities of the Holy Roman Empire.

The family thus shifted its focus from its regions of origin, which had become predominantly Protestant, to the Catholic ecclesiastical principalities of the empire.

The latter's brother Melchior (1644–1717) acquired the fief of Reichelsburg (near Aub) from the prince-bishop of Wurzburg in 1671, giving him access to the Franconian Circle of the imperial knights.

In 1726, Charles VI, Holy Roman Emperor, granted Palanok Castle with Mukacheve, Chynadiiovo and 200 villages in the Kingdom of Hungary (today part of Ukraine), to Elector Lothar Franz, after the latter had sent him troops to defeat Francis II Rákóczi, whose property it had been.

In 1743, members of the family ruled the following states, all sovereign princely-bishoprics within the Holy Roman Empire: Bamberg, Würzburg, Konstanz, Speyer, Worms and Trier, while the archdiocese and electorate of Mainz (and thus archchancellorship of Germany, a position that two Schönborns had held shortly before) were held by a close relative, Johann Friedrich Karl von Ostein.

They followed through, over several generations, with one of the most ambitious building programs of the 18th century, including churches, monasteries, ecclesiastical residences, schools and hospitals.

While the private estates, at a large part still today owned by the family, were of more modest size, sometimes of elder origin, churches, monasteries, ecclesiastical residences and hospitals built by the Schönborn bishops were of immense grandness and splendor.

[1] The ecclesiastical residences were owned by the church, and continued to be inhabited by successive bishops, while the private estates remained inheritance of the family.

Of the grand bishops' palaces, only Weissenstein Palace at Pommersfelden continues to be privately owned by the family, as it was built, from 1711, with an initial amount of 100.000 guilders which were personally granted to elector Lothar Franz by Charles VI, Holy Roman Emperor, in reward of his services and his continuous political support.