HALBERSTADT, a town in the Prussian province of Saxony, 56 m. by rail N.W. of Halle, and 29 S.W. of Magdeburg. It lies in a fertile country north of the Harz mountains, on the Holzemme, at the junction of railways to Halle, Goslar and Thale. Pop. 50, 208. The history of Halberstadt begins with the trans fer to it, in 82o, of the see founded by Charlemagne at Seligen stadt. At the end of the loth century it received a charter and the bishops were granted by the emperors the right to exercise temporal jurisdiction over their see, which became one of the chief ecclesiastical principalities of the Empire. In 1648 it was converted by the treaty of Westphalia into a secular principality for the elector of Brandenburg. By the treaty of Tilsit in 1807 it was annexed to the kingdom of Westphalia, but came again to Prussia on the downfall of Napoleon. The town has many old houses decorated with wood-carving still surviving. The Gothic cathedral (now Protestant), dating from the r3th and 14th cen turies, is remarkable for the great height of the interior, with its slender columns and lofty, narrow aisles. The treasure, preserved in the former chapter-house, is rich in reliquaries, vestments and other objects of mediaeval church art. Among the other churches the only one of special interest is the Liebfrauenkirche (Church of Our Lady), a basilica, with four towers, in the later Romanesque style, dating from the 12th and 13th centuries and restored in 1848, containing old mural frescoes and carved figures. The other old buildings are the town hall, of the 14th century and restored in the 17th century, with a crypt, and the Petershof, formerly the episcopal palace, but now utilized as law courts and a prison. The principal manufactures of the town are sugar, cigars, paper, gloves, boots, leather and machinery. About a mile and a half dis tant is the Klusberge, with prehistoric cave-dwellings in the sand stone rocks.