Höxter

Höxter, a town of Germany, in the Prussian province of Westphalia, prettily situated on the left bank of the Weser, and on the Prussian state railways Börssum-Soest and Scherfede-Holzminden, 32 m. N. of Cassel. Pop. (1905) 7699. It has a medieval town hall, and interesting houses with high gables and wood-carved façades of the 15th and 16th centuries. The most interesting of the churches is the Protestant church of St Kilian, with a pulpit dating from 1595 and a font dating from 1631. There are a gymnasium, a school of architecture and a monument to Hoffmann von Fallersleben in the town. The Weser is crossed here by a stone bridge about 500 ft. in length, erected in 1833. On the Brunsberg adjoining the town there is an old watch-tower, said to be the remains of a fortress built by Bruno, brother of Widukind. Near Höxter is the castle, formerly the Benedictine monastery, of Corvey. The principal manufactures of the town are linen, cotton, cement and gutta-percha, and there is also a considerable shipping trade. Höxter (Lat. Huxaria) in the time of Charlemagne was a villa regia, and was the scene of a battle between him and the Saxons. Under the protection of the monastery of Corvey it gradually increased in prosperity, and became the chief town of the principality of Corvey. Later it asserted its independence and joined the Hanseatic League. It suffered severely during the Thirty Years’ War. After the peace of Westphalia in 1648 it was united to Brunswick; in 1802 it was transferred to Nassau; and in 1807 to the kingdom of Westphalia, after the dismemberment of which, in 1814, it came into the possession of Prussia.

See Kampschulte, Chronik der Stadt Höxter (Höxter, 1872).

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