DUREN, a town in Rhenish Prussia, Germany, on the right bank of the Roer, 19 m. E. from Aix-la-Chapelle on the main line of railway to Cologne. Pop. (1 933) 40,882. The Gothic St. Annakirche is said to contain a portion of the head of the saint, to the shrine of which frequent pilgrimages are made. There are several high-grade schools, and, in the town hall, a collection of antiquities. It is the seat of considerable manufactures, notably cloth, paper, flax-spinning, carpet, artificial wool, sugar, beer and spirits, iron wares, needles, machinery, glass.
Duren derives its name from the Dura or Duria, assemblies held by the Carolingians in the 8th century. It received civic rights early in the 13th century. Hypothecated by the emperor Frederick II. to Count William of Julich, it became incorpor ated with the duchy of that name, and with it passed to Prussia in 1816.