PASSAU, Get-. pron. pas'sou. An ancient town of Bavaria, Germany, situated at the con fluence of the Danube, the Inn, and the 11z. on the Austrian frontier and about 90 miles north east of Munich (Slap: Germany, E 4). The town proper is situated on the rocky tongue between the Danube and the Inn, and is remarkably pic turesque with its old-fashioned houses rising in terraces above each other. The two suburbs of Innstadt and Ilzstadt are situated on the Inn and the Ilz respectively. Opposite llzstadt stands the old fortress of Oberhaus, dating from the begin ning of the thirteenth century. The centre of the old town is the Dounplatz, with its beautiful cathedral founded in the fifth century and rebuilt in the rococo style in the seventeenth century. Adjoining the cathedral is the post office, former ly the canons' residence, where the Treaty of Passau (q.v.) was concluded in 1552. Worthy of mention are also the old and the new rococo epis copal residences and the recently restored Rath ans. In the Innstadt is situated the pilgrimage
church of Mariahilf. The educational institutions include a gymnasium founded in 1611, a Rcal a school of agriculture, a training school for teachers, and a number of institutes for girls. The city manufactures hard-wood flooring, leath er, paper. mirrors, porcelain, matches, wire. etc., and trades in wood, salt, and grain. Population, in 1890, 16.333; in 1900, 17.988, chiefly Roman Catholics.
Passau proper occupies the site of the Castra Batava of the Romans, and Innstadt is identified with the Celtic settlement of Boiudurum, founded about one hundred years B.C. The bishopric of Passau. of which the town is the seat. was founded in 738. secularized in 1803, and re established in 1817. Consult Sloun, Passau (Passau, 1878).