MARBURG. A town in the Province of Iles.e•Nassau, Prussia, situated on the Lahn, 60 miles IT rail north of Frankfort, (Map: Pros. sia. C' 3). It is commanded IT a castle. originally the residence of the landgraves of Hesse. and later a State prison. It is one of the most extensive aneient secular build ings in Germany. and is of interest on account of the disputation between Luther and Zwingli which took place in the Rittersaal in 1529. An other architcetural feature of Marburg is the thirteenth-century Church of Saint Elizabeth, a perfect specimen of early architecture. It was erected by the Teutonic knights soon after the death of Saint Elizabeth. and was restored in the middle of the eighteenth century. It con tains the tine tomb of the Saint, as well as nu merous monuments to the Hessian rulers and knights. Noteworthy arc also the Ilat• hails f1512) and the administration buildings.
The educational institutions of Marburg include the university (see faitnono, I OF), a gymnasium. a 'real' school, and an agricultural sehool. The chief manufactures are leather, pottery, machinery. surgical instruments. ear pets, and tobacco. The euvironA are of great natural beauty. Population, in 1890, 14,520; in 1900, 17,527, chiefly Protestants.
First mentioned in the thirteenth century, burg was endowed with municipal rights Icy the Landgrave Louis of Thuringia in 1227, and after his death became the residence of his widow, Elizabeth of Hungary, later canonized. During the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries Marburg was one of the residences of the landgraves of Hesse. It passed with Hesse-Cassel to Prussia in 1866. The fortifications were demolished by the French in 1810-11.