Erfurt, a city of Prussian Saxony, anciently capital of Thuringia, stands in a highly cultivated plain, on the Gera, 13 miles W. of Weimar by rail. Till 1873 it was strongly fortified. Its two citadels, the Petersberg and the Cyriaksburg, were formerly monasteries. Erfurt has several churches, chiefly Gothic, the cathedral and the church of St Severus being the finest. The cathedral, one of the most venerable Gothic buildings in Germany, possesses, besides a very rich portal, sculptures and bronze castings dating from the 13th to the 16th century, especially a Coronation of the Virgin, by Peter Vischer (1521). In the northern tower is the bell called Maria Gloriosa, cast in 1497, and weighing 13½ tons. The Regler Church contains an altarpiece by Wohlgemuth. The monastery of St Augustine, famous as the residence of Luther, whose cell was destroyed by fire in 1872, was converted in the year 1819 into an asylum for deserted children. From 1378 to 1816 Erfurt was the seat of a university, of which the academy of sciences and the library (60,000 volumes and 1000 MSS.) alone remain. The growing of flowers and vegetables, and an extensive trade in flower-seeds, are carried on. The principal manufactures are woollen, silk, cotton, and linen goods, lamps, machines, shoes, beer, malt, &c. Pop. (1871) 43,616; (1880) 53,254; (1890) 72,360.
Erfurt, originally called Erpesford or Erpesfurt, was made a bishopric in 741, and in 805 the capital of the Sorbs by Charlemagne. In the 15th century its woollen and linen manufactures raised it to the position of one of the foremost cities of Germany. All through, the town has had a stormy history, being either the bone of contention between the electors of Mainz and of Saxony, or the object of attack by foreign invaders. Since 1803 (except the period from 1806 to 1814) it has belonged to Prussia. At the Congress of Erfurt (September-October 1808) Napoleon met the Emperor of Russia and several of the minor sovereign princes of Germany.