The ‘oratorium St. Banti’ in the Trier High Cathedral dates back to the 7th century. This wealthy foundation, the ‘Bantuspräbende’, was managed by a brotherhood. In 1592 Johannes von Schöneberg turned the Bantus foundation into the ‘St. Banti Seminar’. Its purpose was to educate useful workers for the Lord’s vineyards for the glory of God and the maintenance of the Catholic Religion.

In 1773 Clemens Wenzeslaus founded the Bishops’ Priest Seminar. A new and most important period of its history began in 1950 when Pope Pius XII reinstated the theology faculty.

The vineyard property of the Bishops’ Priest Seminar was a donation of Prince Elector Clemens Wenzeslaus in 1773 and had previously belonged to the Jesuit Order. There followed a dispossession in 1794, but thanks to Bishop Mannay all property and capital was returned to the Bishops’ Priest Seminar in 1809 by an imperial decree.

Today the Bishops’ Priest Seminar manages 34 hectares of vineyards. The individual vineyard sites are: Erdener Treppchen, Ürziger Würzgarten, Dhron-Hofberger and Trittenheimer Apotheke on the Middle Mosel, Kaseler Nies'chen on the river Ruwer, Kanzemer Altenberg, Wiltinger Kupp and Ayler Kupp on the river Saar.