PIRMASENS, a small manufacturing town of the Bavarian palatinate, lies in a hilly district, nearly 40 miles west by south of Spires. The staple industry is the production of boots and shoes, which are exported to Austria, Russia, and even America; but musical instruments, stoneware, and other articles are also manufactured. The only noteworthy buildings are the town-house and the principal church, the latter containing a fine monument to Louis IX., landgrave of Hesse-Darmstadt. In 1880 the town contained 12,039 inhabitants, three-fourths of whom were Protestants.

Pirmasens owes its name to a St Pirmin, who is said to have preached Christianity here in the 8th century. It originally belonged to the count of Hanau-Lichtenberg, but passed to Hesse-Darmstadt in 1736. In 1793 the Prussians gained a victory here over a body of French troops.