Weilburg

Weilburg, a town of Germany, in the Prussian province of Hesse-Nassau, picturesquely situated on the Lahn, just above the confluence of the Weil, 50 m. N.E. from Coblenz by the railway to, Giessen. Pop. (1905) 3828. The old town, built on and around a rocky hill almost encircled by the river, contains a castle of the 16th century, formerly the residence of the dukes of Nassau-Weilburg, and later of the grand-dukes of Luxemburg. It has an Evangelical and a Roman Catholic church, the former, the Stadtkirche, containing the burial vaults of the princes of Nassau, a gymnasium and an agricultural college. Its industries include wool-spinning, mining, tanning and dyeing. In the neighbourhood are the ruins of the castles of Merenberg and Freienfels. Weilburg was in the 11th century the property of the bishops of Worms, from whom it passed to the house of Nassau. From 1355 to 1816 it was the residence of the princes of Nassau-Weilburg, a branch of this house.

See C. C. Spielmann, Fiihrer durch Weilburg and Umgebung (Weilburg, 1894); and Geschichte der Stadt and Herrschaft Weilburg (Weilburg, 1896).