Lindau

Lindau, a town and pleasure resort in the kingdom of Bavaria, and the central point of the transit trade between that country and Switzerland, situated on two islands off the north-eastern shore of Lake Constance. Pop. (1905) 6531. The town is a terminus of the Vorarlberg railway, and of the Munich-Lindau line of the Bavarian state railways, and is connected with the mainland both by a wooden bridge and by a railway enbankment erected in 1853. There are a royal palace and an old and a new town-hall (the older one having been built in 1422 and restored in 1886-1888), a museum and a municipal library with interesting manuscripts and a collection of Bibles, also classical, commercial and industrial schools. The harbour is much frequented by steamers from Constance and other places on the lake. There are also some Roman remains, the Heidenmauer, and a fine modern fountain, the Reichsbrunnen. Opposite the custom-house is a bronze statue of the Bavarian king Maximilian II., erected in 1856.

On the site now occupied by the town there was a Roman camp, the castrum Tiberii, and the authentic records of Lindau date back to the end of the 9th century, when it was known as Lintowa. In 1274, or earlier, it became a free imperial town; in 1331 it joined the Swabian league, and in 1531 became a member of the league of Schmalkalden, having just previously accepted the reformed doctrines. In 1647 it was ineffectually besieged by the Swedes. In 1804 it lost its imperial privileges and passed to Austria, being transferred to Bavaria in 1805.

See Boulan, Lindau, vor altem und jetzt (Lindau, 1872); and Stettners, Führer durch Lindau und Umgebungen (Lindau, 1900).