HEILBRONN, a town of Germany, in the Land of Wiirt temberg, on the Neckar, 33 m. by rail N. of Stuttgart, and at the junction of lines to Crailsheim and Eppingen. Pop. 6o,308. Heilbronn occupies the site of an old Roman settlement ; it is first mentioned in 741, and the Carolingian princes had a palace here. It owes its name-originally Heiligbronn, or holy spring-to a spring of water which used to be seen issuing from under the high altar of the church of St. Kilian.
The older streets are narrow, and contain a number of high turreted houses with quaint gables. The principal public buildings are the church of St. Kilian (restored 1886-1895) in the Gothic and Renaissance styles, begun about 1019 and completed in 1529, with a tower 210 ft. high, a beautiful choir, and a finely carved altar; the town hall (Rathaus), founded in 1S4o, and possessing a curious clock made in 158o ; the house of the Teutonic knights (Deutsches Haus) ; the Roman Catholic church of St. Joseph, formerly the church of the Teutonic Order; and the tower (Dieb sturm or Gotzens Turm) on the Neckar. The town is commer cially the most important in Wurttemberg, and possesses an im mense variety of manufactures, of which the principal are gold, silver, steel and iron wares, machines, motor cars, sugar of lead, white lead, vinegar, beer, sugar, tobacco, soap, oil, chemicals, artificial manure, glue, soda, paper and leather.