SCHWEINFURT, a manufacturing town of Lower Franconia in Bavaria, is situated on the right bank of the Main, 22 miles north-east of Würzburg. The Renaissance town-house in the spacious market-place dates from 1570; it contains a library and a collection of antiquities. St John’s church is a Gothic edifice with a lofty tower; St Salvator’s was built about 1720. Schweinfurt is well furnished with benevolent and educational institutions, including a gymnasium founded by Gustavus Adolphus. The Main is here spanned by two bridges. The chief manufacture is paint (“Schweinfurt green” is a well-known brand in Germany), introduced in 1809; but beer, sugar, machinery, soap and other drysalteries, straw-paper, vinegar, &c., are also produced. Cotton-spinning and bell-founding are carried on; and the Main supplies water-power for numerous saw, flour, and other mills. Schweinfurt carries on an active trade in the grain, fruit, and wine produced in its neighbourhood, and it is the seat of an important sheep and cattle market. Rückert the poet (d. 1866) was born here in 1788. The population in 1880 was 12,601, of whom one-fourth were Roman Catholics.

Schweinfurt is mentioned in 790, and in the 10th century was the seat of a margrave. It fell later to the counts of Henneberg; but, receiving town rights in the 13th century, it maintained its independence as a free imperial city with few interruptions until 1803, when it passed to Bavaria. Assigned to the grand-duke of Würzburg in 1810, it was restored to Bavaria in 1814. In the Thirty Years’ War it was occupied by Gustavus Adolphus, who erected fortifications, remains of which are still extant.