CASSEL. kiis'sel. Until 1S66 the capital of the former Electorate of Hesse. now the capital of the Prussian Province of Hesse-Nassau. pleas antly situated on both sides of the Fulda, here navigable, in latitude 51° 19' N. and longitude 9° 29' E., about 35 miles southwest of Gottin gen (Map: Prussia, C 3).
The town consists of the Altstadt, the Ober neustadt. and the new Hohenzollern quarter. all on the left hank of the river, and of the Unterneu stadt on the right bank. The streets of the old town are crooked and narrow, but those of the newer portion are regular and broad and among the handsomest in Germany. The principal street is the EC;nigsstrasse. the upper and lower sections of which are separated by the circular Ei;nigsplatz, remarkable for its echo. On the Friedrichsplatz, the largest square in Germany, are the old Electoral Palace, erected in 1769 and enlarged in IS21, and the Museum Fridericia mint. built in 1769 by Laudgrave Frederick 11., with a colleethm of ancient sculptures and plas ter casts. In the same building is the provincial library of 170,000 volumes and many valuable "MSS., including the Hildebrandslied, dating from the Ninth Century. The brothers Grimm were librarians here from 1514 to 1S30. One of the handsomest buildings in the town is the new Picture Gallery. of red sandstone. finished in P-177. It contains a fine •olleetion of paintings aceurmilated by Landgrave William V111. The Flemish and Dutch schools are particularly well represented, there heing many fine paintings by Van Dyek. Rembrandt, and birds. Among the other notable buildings are Saint :Martin's Church, the post-office, and the Court Theatre, of which Ludwig Spohr was for some years con duetor. Cassel is the seat of the provincial and district government and of the supreme provin vial court. The town's affairs are administered by a municipal council of 48 and an executive board of 21 members. There is a paid as well
as a volunteer tire department. The cost of keep ing the streets clean is borne by the property ow ners. There is a modern sewerage system and a copious water-supply, and the town owns and operates gas-works, an electric-light plant, and a slaughter- lieu se.
In ISOS the municipal budget balanced at about $2.500.000. The assets of the city were nearly $6,000,000, the debts about $3,500,000. The schools require a considerable portion of the revenues. There are numerous educational insti tutions. including two gymnasia, three municipal high schools, and a score of technical schools. There are many hospitals and other charitable institutions. The industries include the manu facture of locomotives, machinery, ironware, sur gical and other scientific instruments, etc. Cas sel has excellent railway facilities, and two elec tric street railway lines serve to accommodate the city traffic. it is the seat of a United States consulate. Population, in 1890, 73,000; in 1900, 106,000. To the west of Cassel and connect ed with it by steam traanway lies the Palace of Willielmshohe, erected in the latter part of the Eighteenth Century, in which Napoleon 111. was detained as a prisoner from the fall of Sedan to the close of the Franco-Prussian War. Wil helmshOhe is fatuous for its artificial cascades. The history of the town dates from the year 913. when, under the name of Chassala, it was the residence of King Conrad I. It received its first municipal rights in the Thirteenth Century from the Landgraves of Thuringia. In the Seven Years' War it was several times captured by the French. In 1807 it was made the capital of the newly formed Kingdom of Westphalia. In 1816 it was occupied by Prussian troops, and became a part of Prussia.