MARBURG, an ancient university town of Prussia, in the province of Hesse-Nassau and district of Cassel, is very picturesquely situated on the slope of a hill on the right bank of the Lahn, 50 miles to the north of Frankfort-onthe-Main, and about the same distance to the south-west of Cassel. On the opposite bank of the river, which is here spanned by two bridges, lie the suburb of Weidenhausen and the station of the Main-Weser Railway. The streets of the town proper are steep and narrow, and the general character of the architecture is quaint and mediaeval. The hill on which the town lies is crowned by the extensive old schloss, a fine Gothic building, the most noteworthy parts of which are the rittersaal (see below), dating from 1277-1320, and the beautiful little chapel. This chateau was formerly the residence of the' landgraves of Hesse, afterwards served as a prison, and is now the repository of the historically interesting and valuable archives of Hesse. The chief architectural ornament of Marburg is, however, the Elisabethenkirche, a ' veritable gem of the purest Early Gothic style, erected by the grand master of the Teutonic Order in 1235-83, to contain the tomb of St Elizabeth of Hungary. The remains of the saint were deposited in a rich silver-gilt sarcophagus, which is still extant, and were afterwards visited by myriads of pilgrims, until the Protestant zeal of Landgrave Philip the Generous caused him to remove the body to some unknown spot in the church. The church also contains the tombs of numerous Hessian landgraves and knights of the Teutonic Order. The Lutheran church is another good Gothic edifice, dating mainly from the 15th century. The townhouse, built in 1512, and several fine houses in the Renaissance style, also deserve mention. The university of ...Marburg, founded by Philip the Generous in 1527, was the first university established without papal privileges, and speedily acquired a great reputation throughout Protestant Europe. It has a library of 140.000 volumes, and is admirably equipped with medical and other institutes, which form some of the finest modern buildings in the town. The number of students is now about seven hundred. Marburg also possesses a gymnasium, a “realschule,” an agricultural school, a society of naturalists, a hospital, a poorhouse, and an extensive lunatic asylum. It is the seat of a district court, and of superintendents of the Lutheran and Reformed churches. Marburg pottery is renowned; and leather, iron wares, and surgical instruments are also manufactured there. The population in 1880 amounted to 11,225. The environs are very picturesque.
Marburg is first historically mentioned in a document of the beginning of the 13th century, and received its municipal charter from Landgrave Louis of Thuringia in 1227. On his death it became the residence of his wife, Elizabeth of Hungary, who built a hospital there and died in 1231, at the age of twenty-four, worn out with works of religion and charity. She was canonized soon after her death. By 1247 Marburg had already become the second town of Hesse, and in the 15th and 16th centuries it alternated with Cassel as the seat of the landgraves. In 1529 the famous conference between Luther and Zwingli on the subject of transubstantiation took place there in the rittersaal of the schloss. During the Thirty Years' and Seven Years’ Wars Marburg suffered considerably from sieges and famine. In 1806, and again in 1810, it was the centre of an abortive rising against the French, in consequence of which the fortifications of tlιe castle were destroyed.
Several monographs have been published on the conference and university of Marburg. A general account of the town, with references to the most important of these, is given in Bücking's Wegweiser durch Marburg, 1875.
MARBURG, the second town of the Austrian duchy of Styria, is very picturesquely situated on both banks of the river Drave, in a plain called the Pettauer-Feld, at the base of the well-wooded Bachergebirge. It is the seat of the bishop of Lavant, and of the judicial and administrative authorities of the district, and contains a gymnasium, a “realschule,” an episcopal seminary, a normal school, a pomological school, a theatre, and three hospitals. The principal buildings are the cathedral, the tower of which commands a beautiful view, and the old castle. Its situation in the midst of a fertile vine-growing district, connected by the navigable Drave with Hungary, and by railway with Vienna, Trieste, the Tyrol, and Carinthia, makes it the centre of a considerable traffic in wine and grain. Its industrial products are leather, iron and tin wares, liqueurs, and sparkling wine, and it also contains several large cooperages. The extensive workshops of the South Austrian Railway are situated in the suburb of Magdalena, on the right bank of the Drave, and give employment to nearly three thousand hands. With the exception of a successful resistance to Matthias Corvinus in 1480-81, the history of the town presents no notable event. In 1880 Marburg contained 17,628 inhabitants, including a garrison of 1600 men. The environs abound in interesting and picturesque points.
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