BRANDENBURG, a town of Prussia, Germany, capital of the district and province of Brandenburg, on the river Havel, 36m. W. by S. of Berlin. Pop. , The town is enclosed by walls, and is divided into three parts by the river—the old town on the right and the new town on the left bank, with the "cathedral town" on an island between them. Many of the houses are built on piles in the river. "Old" and "new" Brandenburg were for centuries separate, but came under a single municipality in 1717. Brandenburg, Brennaburg (Brennabor) or Brendanburg, was orig inally a town of the Slavic tribe of the Hevelli, from whom it was captured (927-928) by the German king Henry I. In 948, Otto I. founded a bishopric here, which was subordinated first to the archdiocese of Mainz, but from 968 onwards to the newly created archbishopric of Magdeburg. It was destroyed by the Wends in 983, but was restored when Albert the Bear recaptured the town in 11S3. In 1539, the bishop became Lutheran, and in 1S98 the see was incorporated in the electoral domains. The cathedral chapter, however, survived.
The Katharinenkirche (I4th—I6th centuries) is a Gothic brick church with a fine carved wooden altar and several interesting mediaeval tombs. The cathedral (Domkirche), originally a Romanesque basilica (117o), but rebuilt in the Gothic style in the 14th century, has a good altar-piece (1465), and is noted for its remarkable collection of mediaeval vestments. Other churches are the Petrikirche (14th century), the Gothardskirche, partly Romanesque (116o), partly Gothic (1348), and the Nikolaikirche (12th and 13th centuries), now no longer used. The former town hall of the "old town" (Altstadt Rathaus), built in the 13th and 14th centuries, is now used as government offices. In front of the town hall in the Neustadt, in the market-place, stands a Rolandssdule, a colossal figure i8ft. in height, hewn out of a single block of stone. To the north of the town is the Marienburg, with a convent. The industries of Brandenburg include some metal-work, tin-plate products and bicycles, and woollen and jute goods.