Freiburg im Breisgau


Freiburg im Breisgau

(frī`bo͝ork ĭm brīs`gou), city (1994 pop. 197,380), Baden-Württemberg, SW Germany, near the Rhine River and at the edge of the Black Forest. Freiburg is a tourist and conference center, and also a major trading center for wine and timber. Freiburg was founded in 1120 and passed, with the rest of the Breisgau, to the Hapsburgs in 1368. In the Thirty Years War (1618–48) the Bavarians and Austrians were defeated there (1644) by the French under Turenne and Louis II de Condé. The French held Freiburg from 1677 to 1697 and again (1744–48) during the War of the Austrian Succession. In 1805 the city passed to Baden. Freiburg is famous as a cultural center and is the seat of a noted university (founded 1457) and of a number of museums. The city has been an archiepiscopal see since 1821 and has a splendid Gothic cathedral (begun in the 13th cent.), with a high (380 ft/116 m) tower.