Goslar

Goslar, an ancient town of Hanover, situated on the north slope of the Harz Mountains, 27 miles SE. of Hildesheim. At one time a free imperial city, and the residence of the emperors, it has several noteworthy old buildings, as the tower called the 'Zwinger,' with walls 23 feet thick; the Late Romanesque church Neuwerk, of the 12th century, and the Frankenberger church (1108, restored 1880), both with ancient frescoes; the emperor's house, built in 1050 by Henry III., the dwelling-house of the emperors till the middle of the 13th century, the meeting-place of more than a score of imperial diets, restored in 1867-80, and adorned with frescoes by Wislicenus; the town-house, built in 1136-84; and the Kaiserworth, an old building containing statues of eight emperors. To the south of the town is the Rammelsberg, a mountain formerly very rich in silver, gold, copper, lead, sulphur, and green vitriol (sulphate of iron). The mines have been worked since 968, and are still in operation. Goslar was founded by Henry I. in 920. About 1350 it joined the Hanseatic League. Its ancient prosperity began to depart from it in the middle of the 16th century; and it suffered severely from the Swedes in the Thirty Years' War. In 1802 it ceased to be a free imperial town and fell to Prussia, to whom it again returned in 1866, after having in the meantime belonged to Westphalia (from 1807) and Hanover (from 1816). Here were born Henry IV. and Marshal Saxe. The Wordsworths were here in 1798. Pop. (1875) 9838; (1895) 18,966. See works by Mithoff (1874) and Wolfstiege (1885).