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HERSFELD

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Originally appearing in Volume V13, Page 397 of the 1911 Encyclopedia Britannica.
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HERSFELD , a See also:

town of See also:Germany, in the Prussian See also:province of See also:Hesse-See also:Nassau, is pleasantly situated at the confluence of the Geis and Hann with the See also:Fulda, on the railway from Frankforton-See also:Main to Bebra, 24 M. N.N.E. of Fulda. Pop. (1905) 8688. Some of the old fortifications of the town remain, but the ramparts and ditches have been laid out as promenades. The See also:principal buildings are the Stadt Kirche, a beautiful See also:Gothic See also:building, erected about 1320 and restored in 1899, with a See also:fine See also:tower and a large See also:bell; the old and interesting town See also:hall (Rathaus) and the ruins of the See also:abbey See also:church. This church was erected on the site of the See also:cathedral in the beginning of the 12th See also:century; it was built in the See also:Byzantine See also:style and was burnt down by the See also:French in' 761. Outside the town are the Frauenberg and the Johannesberg, on both of which are monastic ruins. Among the public institutions are a gymnasium and a military school. The town has important manufactures of See also:cloth, See also:leather and machinery; it has also dye-See also:works, worsted See also:mills and See also:soap-boiling works. Hersfeld owes its existence to the See also:Benedictine abbey (see below). It became a town in the 12th century and in 1370 the burghers, having meanwhile shaken off the authority of the abbots, placed themselves under the See also:protection of the landgraves of Hesse.

It was taken and retaken during the See also:

Thirty Years' See also:War and later it suffered from the attacks of the French. The Benedictine abbey of Hersfeld was founded by Lullus, afterwards See also:archbishop of See also:Mainz, about 769. It was richly endowed by See also:Charlemagne and became an ecclesiastical principality in the '2th century, passing under the protection of the landgraves of Hesse in 1423. It was secularized in 1648, having been previously administered for some years by a member of the ruling See also:family of Hesse. As a See also:secular principality Hersfeld passed to Hesse, and with electoral Hesse was ;See also:united with See also:Prussia in '866. In the See also:middle ages the abbey was famous for its library. See Vigelius, Denkwurdigkeiten von Hersfeld (Hersfeld, '888); Demme, Nachrichten and Urkunden zur Chronik von Hersfeld (Hersfeld, 1891-1901), and P. Hafner, See also:Die Reichsabtei Hersfeld bis zur Mitte desI3ten Jahrhunderts (Hersfeld, '889).

End of Article: HERSFELD

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