Bonn

Bonn, a town of the Rhine province of Prussia, on the left bank of the Rhine, and some 15 or 20 miles S.E. of Cologne. It has a cathedral and a bishop, a university, an academy of naturalists, an observatory, a botanical garden, scientific collections, a museum of antiquities, and a library of 200,000 volumes. There are also manufactures of cotton, silks, soap, tobacco and vitriol, and some trade in grains, seeds, wines, and lead ore. The cathedral, restored about the middle of this century, is a good specimen of late 13th century architecture, and is said to have been founded originally by the Empress Helena. On the cathedral square is a bronze statue of Beethoven, who was born at Bonn in 1770. There is also a statue of the antiquary, Winckelmann, and monuments of Niebuhr and Arndt. The university (founded in 1818) is in the ancient palace of the Electors of Cologne. The great hall has some remarkable frescoes emblematical of the four faculties, and the university is very rich in collections of different kinds, besides its library of over 200,000 volumes. A Roman altar of Victory preserved here is thought to be the "Ara Ubioruni" mentioned by Tacitus (Annals), and the town, called Bonna by the Romans, was one of the first strong forts erected on the Rhine by Drusus. It has suffered much in war at various times. A member of the Hanseatic league in the 13th century, its forts were dismantled in the 18th; but the town is regaining some of its ancient renown. It has been a stronghold of the Old Catholics.