WIESBADEN, a town of Prussia, province of Hesse-Nassau; until 1866 capital of the independent duchy of Nas sau; on the S. W. spurs of the Taunus Mountains, 377 feet above the sea; 6 miles N. of Mainz. It is well built, and contains a large number of splendid ho tels. The chief buildings are the Gothic Protestant church (1853-1862), a noble edifice with five lofty towers, containing colossal marble statues of Christ and the four Evangelists; the Roman Catholic church (1844-1849), in the Romanesque style; the English church (1863-1865); the synagogue, in the Oriental style; the Schloss (1837-1840) ; the museum, with a picture gallery, a collection of antiq uities, a natural history collection, and a library of 100,000 volumes; the Pauline palace (1842), in Moorish style; the gov ernment buildings (1842), in the Floren tine palatial style; the Greek chapel, erected by the Duke of Nassau as a mausoleum for his first wife, Elizabeth Michailowna; and the Kursaal, the prin cipal resort of visitors, the largest hall of which is 132 feet long, 60 feet wide, and 48 feet high. Connected with the
Kursaal by a long iron Trinkhalle is the Kochbrunnen, the principal of the 22 medicinal springs of Wiesbaden. Its wa ters have a temperature of 156° F. The second spring is that in the garden of the Adler Hotel, 147° F. Wiesbaden is one of the most frequented spas in Eu rope. The springs of Wiesbaden are spoken of by Pliny as the "Fontes Mat tiaci," and on the Heidenberg, N. of the town, traces of a Roman fortress were discovered in 1838, which seems to have been connected with the town by a wall, the Heidenmauer ("heathens' wall"), in the ruins of which votive tablets and in scriptions have been discovered. Pop. about 110,000.