HERSFELD, a town of Germany, in the Prussian province of Hesse-Nassau, situated at the confluence of the Geis and Haun with the Fulda, on the railway from Frankfort-on-Main to Bebra, 24 m. N.N.E. of Fulda. Pop. (1933) 12,378. Some of the old fortifications of the town remain. The principal buildings are the Stadt Kirche, a beautiful Gothic building, erected about 13 20 and restored in 1899; the old town hall (Rathaus) and the ruins of the abbey church. This church was erected on the site of the cathedral in the beginning of the 12th century; it was built in the Byzantine style and was burnt down by the French in 1761. Outside the town are the Frauenberg and the Johannesberg, on both of which are monastic ruins. The town has important manu factures of cloth, leather, machinery, vaseline and cordage; it has also dye-works. The Benedictine abbey of Hersfeld was founded by Lullus, afterwards archbishop of Mainz, about 769. It was richly endowed by Charlemagne and became an ecclesiastical prin cipality in the 12th century, passing under the protection of the landgraves of Hesse in 1423. It was secularized in 1648. Hersfeld became a town in the 12th century and in 137o the burghers, hav ing shaken off the abbot's authority, placed themselves under the protection of the landgraves of Hesse. Hersfeld, with electoral Hesse, was united with Prussia in 1866.