RE'GENSBURG, or RATISBON (Lat. Reginum, Radespona), the capital of time Bavarian province of Oberpfalz and Regensburg, is situated on the right bank of the Danube, at the mouth of the Regen, 65 m. n.n.e. of Munich. Pop. '75, 31,487. Regensburg, which was formerly a free city of the empire and the seat of the German diet, is pleas antly situated in the midst of a broad and fruitful valley, lying 1000 ft. above the level of the sea. It presents a strongly marked medival character, with its ancient ram parts, fosses, and gates, and its narrow crooked streets, with their high, many-cornered, gabled houses, while it retains many interesting monuments of its importance and wealth during the middle ages. Among its 13 Roman Catholic churches, the most remarkable is the cathedral, begun in 1275, and not completed till the middle of the 17th c., which ranks, since its, restoration in 1830-38, as one of the noblest specimens of German archi tecture, and is especially noteworthy for the fine monuments of its former bishops, and for its silver altar and numerous painted-glass windows, restored in 1830. The Scottish church of St. James (secularized in 1862) dates from the 12th c., and is built in the pure Byzantine style. There are several monasteries in Regensburg, and three Protestant churches. The old town-hall was used for a century and a half as the place of meeting for the imperial diet. The royal library contains 60,000 volumes. The city has several `highly ornamental fountains, and contains a monument to Kepler, the astronomer, who died in Regensthirg. A stone bridge connects Regensburg with the busy trading suburb
of Stadt am Hof. The manufactures of Regensburg include gold, silver, brass, and steel wares, paper, earthenware, beet-root sugar, brandy, and candles and soap of superior gnality. Since 1853 it has been a free port; and in addition to ship-building, which is carried on with much activity, the trading community is extensively engaged in the transport of corn, wood, and salt. Regensburg, as the principal seat of the Dan ube steam-navigation company, is an especially busy trading port. , Regensburg, which ranks as one of the most ancient cities of Germany, and was built by the Romans, by whom it was named Reginum, was a place of considerable corn /founded importance in the early ages of Christianity. In the year 750 a bishopric was /founded here, which embraced a large portion of Bavaria and the Upper Palatinate. Under the emperor Frederick I., it was relieved from the subjection under which it had previously stood to time dukes of Bavaria, and declared a free city. During the middle ages it was time chief seat of the Indo-Levantine trade, and was one of the wealthiest and most populous cities of southern Germany. From 1663 to the dissolution of the German empire in 1806, Regensburg was, with a very short interregnum, the seat of the German diet; and after undergoing various changes of fortune during the period of Napoleon's power, Was finally ceded to Bavaria, of which it has since formed an integral part.