MARBURG, a university town in the Prussian province of Hesse-Nassau, situated on the right bank of the Lahn, 6o m. by rail N. of Frankfort-on-Main, on the main line to Cassel. Pop, (1933) 28,209. Marburg is first historically mentioned in a docu ment of the beginning of the 13th century, and received its munici pal charter from the landgrave Louis of Thuringia in 1227. By 1247 Marburg had already become the second town of Hesse, and in the 15th and 16th centuries it alternated with Cassel as the seat of the landgraves. In 1529 the famous conference between Luther and Zwingli on the subject of Transubstantiation took place there in the Rittersaal of the Schloss. The hill on which the town lies is crowned by the Schloss, a Gothic building, the most noteworthy parts of which are the Rittersaal, dating from 1277 1312, and the little chapel. This Schloss is now the repository of the archives of Hesse. The Elizabethenkirche, in the purest Early Gothic style, was erected by the grand master of the Teutonic Order in 1235-83, to contain the tomb of St. Elizabeth of Hun
gary, who was the wife of the landgrave Louis. She built a hospital here, and died in 1231, worn out with works of charity. In 1235 she was canonized at the instance of the Teutonic Knights who were zealous in promoting her cult. Her rich silver-gilt sarcoph agus may still be seen, but the Protestant zeal of Landgrave Philip the Generous caused him to remove the body to some unknown spot in the church. The Lutheran church is another Gothic edifice, mainly 15th century. The town hall, built in 1512, and several houses in the Renaissance style, also deserve mention. The university of Marburg, founded in 1527, was the first uni versity established without papal privileges, and acquired a great reputation throughout Protestant Europe. Marburg is the seat of a district court. Marburg pottery is renowned ; and soap, iron wares and surgical instruments are also manufactured there.