LINDAU, a town in the government district of Swabia and Neuburg, Bavaria, and the central point of the transit trade between that country and Switzerland, is situated on two islands off the north-eastern shore of Lake Constance, in 47° 34' N. lat., 9° 43' E. long. The town is a terminus of the Vorarlberg Railway, and of the Munich-Lindau line of the Bavarian State Railway, and is connected with the mainland both by a wooden bridge and by a railway embankment of stone erected in 1853. There are Roman Catholic and Lutheran churches, a royal château, an old town-hall, classical, commercial, and industrial schools, and also manufactories for surgical and musical instruments, a fishery, and a fine harbour provided with a lighthouse and much visited by steamers from Constance and other places on the lake. Opposite the custom-house is a bronze statue of king Maximilian II., erected in 1856. The trade is chiefly in grain, fruit, wine, cherry-brandy, fish, cheese, and lard. In January 1882 the population was about 5350.

On the site which the town now occupies there is believed to have been formerly an ancient Roman camp, Castrum TiberU. Authentic records of Lindau date back to the end of the 9th century. In 1531 it joined the Smalkald league, and in 1647 was ineffectually besieged by the Swedes. From 1275 to 1803 it was a free^imperial town. In 1804 it passed to Austria, and in 1805 to Bavaria.