ERFURT, a city of Prussian Saxony, anciently capital of Thuringia, stands in a highly cultivated plain, on the right bank of the Gera, 14 m. w. of Weimar. Till 1873, E. was strongly fortified, and was accounted a fortress of the second rank. Its two citadels, the Petersberg and the Cyriaksburg, were both formerly monasteries. Among the numerous churches, the cathedral and the church of St. Severus arc the finest. The cathedral is one of the most venerable Gothic buildings in Germany, and possesses, besides a very rich portal, sculptures dating from the 11th to the 16th century. Of the convents, only that of the Ursuline nuns remains. The monastery of St. Augustine, famous as the residence of Luther, whose cell was destroyed by fire in 1872, was con verted in the year 1820 into an asylum for deserted children. The other remarkable buildings are the university, founded in 1378, and suppressed in 1816; the royal acad emy; the library, containing 60,000 volumes; numerous educational establishments, infirmaries, etc. Pop. '71, 43,616; '75, 48,030. Horticulture and an extensive trade in
seeds are carried on. The principal manufactures are woolen, silk, cotton, and linen goods, yarn, shoes, stockings, tobacco, leather, etc.
E. is said to have been founded in the beginning of the 5th c. by one Erpes, from whom it took its original name of Erpesford. During the middle ages, at the time of its highest prosperity, E. was strongly fortified, and contained 60,000 inhabitants. Iu 740, St. Boniface founded a bishopric at E., and in the year 805 it was converted into an entrepift of commerce by Charlemagne. It afterwards belonged to the Hanse-league, then to the elector of Mainz, from 1801-6 to Pru,,sia, and from that time until 1813 ;it was under French rule. E. was finally restored to Prussia by the congress of Vienna. In the spring of 1850, the parliament of the states, which had combined together for union, held its sittings at Erfurt.