FELDKIRCH, the chief town of the Vorarlberg district of Tyrol in Austria, is situated at the junction of the valley of the Ill with the valley of the Rhine, about 6⅜ miles above the confluence of the two rivers. The position is one of much natural beauty and also of great military strength; and the town has consequently been of far more importance than is indicated by its size. It is the seat of a number of administrative offices, the residence of a bishop, and the centre of a considerable transit trade. Among its own industries are cotton-spinning, weaving, bell-founding, copper-smithery, engineering, coopering, and the manufacture of Kirschu'asser. The principal buildings are the parish church (which dates from 1487 and possesses a Descent from the Cross assigned to Holbein), a Capuchin monastery and church, a Jesuit seminary (the Stella Matutina, or Morning Star), a charity hospital with bathing establishment attached, and the Kurhaus with its park. To the east of the town lie the ruins of the castle of Schatteuburg, and about a mile to the south begins the territory of the prince of Lichtenstein. Feldkirch, or rather Schattenburg, was at one time the seat of the counts of Montfort, but in 1377 it was sold by Count Rudolph VII. to the dukes of Austria. In 1799 the Feldkirch pass was the scene of an indecisive conflict between the Austrians under Hotze and Jellalich and the French under Oudinot and Massena: and in 1805 the Austrian forces under Wolfskehl were obliged to capitulate in the neighbourhood. The population, almost exclusively Catholic, numbered 2868 in 1869.