Olmütz

Olmütz, a fortress of Moravia, Austria, on the March, 129 miles NNE. of Vienna. Notable are the 14th-century cathedral (restored 1887); the church of St Maurice (1472), whose organ has 48 stops and 2342 pipes; the noble town-hall, with a steeple 255 feet high; the archiepiscopal palace; and the lofty Trinity column on the Oberring. The former university (1581-1855) is reduced to a theological faculty, with over 200 students and a library of 75,000 volumes. The trade is more important than the manufactures. Pop. 20,176. Olmütz, which in 1640 was superseded by Briinn as the capital of Moravia, suffered severely in both the Thirty and the Seven Years' Wars. In 1848 Ferdinand I. signed his abdication here. See the local history by W. Müller (Vienna, 1882).