LÜNEBURG, the chief town of a district in the Prussian province of Hanover, is situated near the foot of a small hill named the Kalkberg, and on the river Ilmenau, 14 miles above its confluence with the Elbe, and 30 miles to the south-east of Hamburg. Numerous handsome mediaeval buildings testify to its former prosperity, and part of the old town-wall also still survives. Of its four churches three—those of St John, St Nicholas, and St Michael—are large and fine Gothic edifices of the 14th and 15th centuries. The principal secular buildings are the town-house, a huge pile dating from the 13th to the 18th century, the old palace, and the convent of St Michael, now converted into a school. Lüneburg owes its importance chiefly to the gypsum and lime quarries of the Kalkberg, which afford the materials for its cement works, and to the productive salt-spring at its base. Hence the ancient saying, which, grouping with these the commercial facilities afforded by the bridge over the Ilmenau, ascribes the prosperity of Lüneburg to its mans, fans, pons. The industries of the town also include the making of ironware, soda, and haircloth. Population in 1880, 19,045....