Aschaffenburg

Aschaffenburg, a Bavarian town of Lower Franconia, on the right bank of the Main, at the Aschaff's influx, 25 miles SE. of Frankfort. The castle of Johannisburg, a Renaissance pile of 1605-14, overlooks the whole town. The Romanesque Stiftskirche was restored in 1870-81, and there is a reproduction of a Pompeian villa, built for Louis I. in 1842-49. Paper is the staple manufacture. Population, 13,630, principally Catholics. The Romans built a fortress at Aschaffenburg; and here in 976 Otto I., Duke of Swabia and Bavaria, founded the collegiate church (Stiftskirche), which after his death came into the possession of the Archbishops of Mainz, and remained with them until the dissolution of the Germanic empire. In 1814, along with the principality of which it was the capital, Aschaffenburg was ceded to Bavaria by Austria. Near it the Prussians defeated the Austrians, July 14, 1866.