Marburg

Marburg, a town in Hesse-Cassel, situated on the left bank of the Lahn, about midway between Cassel and Coblentz. Here St. Elizabeth of Hungary, wife of the landgrave of Thuringia, died in 1231, and in the 15th and 16th centuries it was generally the capital of the landgraves of Hesse. Here also Luther and Zwingli conferred in 1529, in the hall of the great Schloss or Castle, which was even then more than 300 years old. Two years before Marburg University had been founded by the Protestant Landgrave Philip. The city is distinguisbed architecturally by a fine specimen of early Gothic, the Elisabethenkirche, built by the Teutonic Order to contain the tomb of St. Elizabeth. It is also celebrated for its pottery.