Breisach

Breisach, ALT, a town of Baden, situated on an isolated basalt hill (804 feet) on the right side of the Rhine, 14 miles-W. of Freiburg. The Mons Brisiacus of Cæsar, it was taken by Ariovistus when he invaded Gaul; being regarded as the key to the west of Germany, it figured prominently in the wars of the 17th and 18th centuries. The minster is a 13th-century structure. Pop. 3088.—Neu Breisach (pop. 2500), on the other side of the Rhine, in Alsace, was built by Louis XIV. in 1697, when Alt Breisach was given back to the empire.