Esslingen

Esslingen, a manufacturing town of Württemberg, on the Neckar, in the centre of a pleasing and fertile district, 9 miles by rail ESE. of Stuttgart. It consists of the inner town, which retains much of its old walls and towers, and of several suburbs, embosomed in gardens and vineyards. The chief buildings are the old citadel, the Liebfrauen Church (1440)—a splendid Gothic edifice, with a beautiful spire 246 feet high—the old (1430) town-house, and the new (1742). It has the greatest machine-shops in the kingdom, a lithographic establishment, and manufactures of a wine called Esslingen champagne, of woollens, of cotton and woollen yarns, lacquered iron, silver-plate, and tin wares, with a good trade in wine and fruit. Pop. (1875) 19,602; (1890) 22,234. Esslingen was founded in the 8th century, and received in 1209 the rights of a free city of the German empire. During the 15th century it was engaged in a bitter contest with the counts and dukes of Württemberg. In 1802 the town, with its territory, was assigned to the duchy of Württemberg.