NUREMBERG or NURNBERG (Norimberga, Noriea), a fortified city of the Bavarian province of middle Franconia, situated in 49° 28' n. hit. and 11° 5' e. long. Pop. '71, 80,000; '75, 91,017. Nuremberg is one of the most remarkable and interesting cities of Germany, on account of the numerous remains of medieval architecture which it pre sents in its picturesque streets, with their gabled houses, stone balconies, and quaint carvings. No city retains a stronger impress of the characteristics which distinguish the wealthy burgher-classes in the middle ages, while its double lines of fortified walls, separated from each other by public walks and gardens, and guarded by 7.0 towers, together with the numerous bridges which span the Pegnitz, on whose banks the city is built, give it distinctive features of its own. 'Among the most remarkable of its nniner ous public buildings are the old palace or castle, commanding, from its high positiom, a glorious view of the surrounding country, and interesting for its antiquity, and for its gallery of paintings, rich in gems of early German art; the town-hall, which ranks amongst the noblest of its kind in Germany, and is adorned with works of Albert Dhrer, and Gabriel Weyher; the noble Gothic fountain opposite the cathedral by Schanhofer, with its numerous groups of figures, beautifully restored in modern times; and many other fountains deserving notice. Of the numerous churches of Nuremberg, the following are the most remarkable: St. Lawrence, built between 1270-1478, with RR beautiful painted-glass windows, its noble towers and door-way, and the celebrated stone pyx, completed in 1500, by Adam Kraft, after five years assiduous labor; and the exquisite wood carvings of Veit Stoss; St. Sebald's, with its numerous fine glass-paint ings and frescoes by Peter Visscher and other German masters; the cathedral, or Our Lady's, built in 1631, similarly enriched. Nuremberg is well provided with educational establishments, and besides a good gymnasium and polytechnic institution, has good schools of art, normal and other training colleges, a public library of 50,000 vols., gal leries of art collections, museums, etc.; while the numerous institutions of benevolence are liberally endowed and well maintained. Although the glory of the foreign com merce of Nuremberg may be said to have been long extinct, its home trade, which is still of considerable importance, includes the specialties of metal, wood, and bone carv ings, and children's toys and dolls, which find a ready sale in every part of Europe, and are largely exported to America and the east. In addition to its own industrial com
merce, is the seat of a large transfer and exchange business, which owes much of its importance to the facilities of intercommunication afforded by the net-work of railway lines with which the city is connected.
Nuremberg was raised to the rank of a free imperial city by the Emperor Henry V.; in 1219, previous to which time, Henry IV. had enabled 38 of the principal burgher families, who forthwith arrogated to themselves supreme power over the Nuremberg territory. In the 13th c., we find it under the title of a burg -graviate in the hands of the Hohenzollern family, who, in 1417, ceded for a sum of money all their territorial and manorial rights to the magistracy.of the city. This .measure a stop to the feuds which had hitherto raged between the butggrafs and The municipality, and for a time Nuremberg continued to grow rich with the fruits of the great internal trade which it had long maintained between the traders of the east and the other European marts of commerce. The discovery of the passage by the cape of Good Hope, by opening new channels of communication between Asia and Europe, deprived Nuremberg of its ancient monopoly. The thirty years' war completed the decay of the city, which suf fered severely from both parties in turn. The ancient reputation of Nuremberg as a wealthy and loyal city of Germany secured to it, however, special consideration; and in 1803 when the imperial commissioners reorganized some of the dismembered parts of the old empire, it was allowed to retain its independence, with a territory of 483 sq.m., containing 40,000 inhabitants, and drawing ,a revenue of 800,000 guldens; but in con sequence of the disputes in which the free city became involved with the king of Prus sia, who had some hereditary claim on the ancient burg-graviate, Nuremberg, alarmed at the prospect of still greater embarrassments, entered into the Rhenish confederation, and as the result of this alliance, was transferred, in 1800, with the surrender of its entire domain and all rights of sovereignty, to the king of Bavaria.