Merseburg

Merseburg, a town of Prussian Saxony, on the Saale, 8 miles S. of Halle. Its Domkirche is a four-towered pile, with Romanesque choir (1042), transept (circa 1274), and 16th-century nave—the whole restored in 1884-86. The organ (1666) has 4000 pipes; and there is a very early bronze effigy in low relief of Rudolph of Swabia, who here was defeated and slain by Henry IV. in 1080. The castle, a picturesque edifice, mostly of the 15th century, was once the bishop's palace, and afterwards (1656-1738) the residence of the dukes of Sachsen-Merseburg. Beer, iron, paper, &c. are manufactured. Pop. (1875) 13,664; (1885) 16,828. Henry the Fowler in 934 gained his great victory over the Hungarians near Merseburg, which suffered much in the Peasants' War and in the Thirty Years' War.