Annaberg

Annaberg, a town of Germany, in the kingdom of Saxony, in the Erzgebirge, 1894 ft. above the sea, 6 m. from the Bohemian frontier, 18½ m. S. by E. from Chemnitz by rail. Pop. (1905) 16,811. It has three Evangelical churches, among them that of St Anne, built 1499-1525, a Roman Catholic church, several public monuments, among them those of Luther, of the famous arithmetician Adam Riese, and of Barbara Uttmann. Annaberg, together with the neighbouring suburb, Buchholz, is the chief seat of the braid and lace-making industry in Germany, introduced here by Barbara Uttmann in 1561, and further developed by Belgian refugees, who, driven from their country by the duke of Alva, settled here in 1590. The mining industry, for which the town was formerly also famous and which embraced tin, silver and cobalt, has now ceased. Annaberg has technical schools for lace-making, commerce and agriculture, in addition to high grade public schools for boys and girls.