1911 Encyclopædia Britannica/Pfalzburg

PFALZBURG, a town of Germany, in the imperial province of Alsace-Lorraine, lies high on the west slopes of the Vosges, 25 m. N.W. of Strassburg by rail. Pop. (1905), 3716. It contains an Evangelical and a Roman Catholic church, a synagogue and a teachers' seminary. Its industries include the manufacture of gloves, straw hats and liqueurs, and also quarrying.

The principality of Pfalzburg, of which this town was the capital, originally a part of Luxemburg, afterwards belonged in turn to the bishop of Metz, the bishop of Strassburg and the duke of Lorraine, and passed into the possession of France in 1661. The town was of importance as commanding the passes of the Vosges, and was strongly fortified by Vauban in 1680. The works resisted the Allies in 1814 and 1815, and the Germans for four months in 1870, but they were taken on the 12th of December of that year. They have since been razed.