KRONSTADT, kron'stat, or CRON STADT, Hungary, called by Hungarians Brass& a town in the county of the same name in Transylvania, junction of four railways and most picturesquely situated. It is wedged in by a valley gorge of the Schuler Mountains, open only on the northwest. In front of the mouth of the gorge rises the Schlossberg, an old fortification or citadel dating back to 1554. The suburbs lie in small neighboring ravines, some built on terraces. In the middle of the old former fortified central city is the cathedral erected under King Sigismond (1385-1425) in imposing Gothic style, but serving now as an Evangelical parish church and termed locally the *black church,* on account of its charred walls; its gigantic organ contains 4,060 pipes. The triangular market place contains the an cient town-hall with its archives, erected 1420 and renovated (1770) in Baroque style; also the great Kaufhaus, built 1545. There is also a Catholic parsonage in Italian style, a Rumanian church in Byzantine style, besides several other Catholic, Evangelical and Grecian churches and a Reformed church. Other prominent public edifices are the Franciscan monastery, the Treasury building, etc. There are monuments erected in memory of Honterus, one to Bishop Teutsch and the Millennium monument. Its
population was about 41,056, of whom most are Magyars, the remainder Wallachs, Saxons, Greeks and other Orientals. Considerable com merce is carried on, the metal and wood indus tries being important. There are manufactures of earthenware, bed-coverings, cement, leather, paper, as well as sugar and petroleum refineries. Among its institutions are three gymnasiums, a state upper high school, trade academy, theatre. etc. This city suffered many times by war ravages; it was destroyed by the Tartars (13th century) several times, was conquered by the Turks (1421), becoming a frontier town of Protestantism in the days of Honterus the Re former (16th century), it was plundered by Gabriel Bathori (1610), besieged in 1611 and 1612. General Caraffa executed (1688) many of its citizens and plundered the city; it was burned down the next year by the soldiery. In 1718 and 1755 the pest decimated its inhabitants; in 1849 it was besieged twice and the Russians took possession. Consult Herrmann-M.eltzl, von, Was alte und neue Kronstadt' (Her mannstadt 1885-88) ; Filtsch, (Die Stadt Kron stadt und deren Umgebung' (Vienna 1886).