Page:Encyclopædia Britannica, Ninth Edition, v. 17.djvu/379

Rh U N E IT institutions. In Alt-Sandec, a little to the south, at the confluence of the Poprad and Dunajec, is an old convent of Clarissine nuns, formerly one of the wealthiest in Poland. Sandec was founded by Wenzel, king of Poland and Bohemia, in 1294. It contains (1880) 11,185 inhabi tants, most of whom are Protestants. ISTEUSATZ (Hungarian, Uj Videk ; Servian, Novisacl), a royal free town of Hungary, in the province of Bacs, and the seat of a Greek non-united bishop, lies on the left bank of the Danube, opposite Peterwardein, with which it is connected by a bridge of boats. It is about 150 miles to the south of Pesth and 50 miles above Belgrade. The town is well built, and contains ten churches (Greek, Roman Catholic, and Protestant), a synagogue, a gymnasium, and a real-school. It is a steamboat station, and carries on a brisk trade in grain and fruit with Germany and Turkey. Nearly one half of its 21,325 inhabitants (1880) are Serbs, the other half being made up of Magyars, Germans, and Jews ; and it has recently become a sort of religious and literary centre for the Serbs of Hungary. Neusatz was founded in the middle of the 18th century, and was almost totally destroyed in 1849, when the insurgents made an ineffectual resistance here to the imperial troops under Jellachich. In the vicinity are the remains of an extensive Roman entrenchment. NEUSOHL (Hungarian, Bestercze-Bdnya ; Slavonic, Banska, Bystrica], an ancient mining town of Hungary, the capital and see of the district of Sohl, is prettily situated at the confluence of the Gran and the Bistritz, in a fertile valley enclosed by lofty hills, 85 miles to the north of Pesth. It is a well-built town, with five suburbs, and contains a Roman Catholic cathedral, an imposing Protestant church, an old castle, two gymnasia, an episcopal seminary, a normal school, and several charitable institutions. The offices of the mining and other authorities of the district are large and handsome buildings. In 1880 Neusohl contained 7160 inhabitants, of mixed Magyar, Slavonic, and German descent. They are employed chiefly in the copper, lead, and silver mines of the vicinity, and in the various metallurgical occupations to which these give rise ; but they also manufacture cloth, dye-stuffs, paper, beetroot sugar, &c. Mining has been carried on here since the 8th century, and has been pro secuted with especial energy since the immigration of German miners in the llth and 13th centuries. Neusohl was made a royal free town in 1255. NEUSS, a busy manufacturing town of Rhenish Prussia, lies 4 miles to the west of Dtisseldorf and l^ miles from the west bank of the Rhine, with which it is con nected by the Erft canal, uniting the Rhine and the Meuse. The chief building in the town is the church of St Quirinus, a remarkably fine example of the transition from the Round to the Pointed style; and there are four other Roman Catholic churches, a Protestant church, a gymnasium (containing a collection of Roman antiquities), and two lunatic asylums established in old convents. The site formerly occupied by -fortifications is now laid out as a promenade encircling the town. Neuss is the chief place in the Rhenish province for the production of oil and meal, and it also carries on the manufacture of woollen stuffs, white goods, and paper, brick-making, iron-founding, and other industries too numerous to specify. Its markets for cereals are among the most important in Prussia, and it is also the centre of a brisk trade in cattle, coals, building materials, and the products of its various manufactories. In 1880 it contained 17,495 inhabitants, of whom 16,077 were Roman Catholics. Neuss, the Novesium of the Romans, frequently mentioned by Tacitus, formerly lay close to the Rhine, and was the natural centre of the district of which Dusseldorf has become the chief town. Drusus, brother of the emperor Tiberius, threw a bridge across the Rhine here, and his name is preserved in the Drususthor, the lower half of which is of Roman masonry. In 1474-75 Charles the Bold of Burgundy besieged the town in vain for eleven weeks, during which he lost 10,000 men ; but it was taken and sacked by Alexander Farnese in 1586. NEUSTADT (Polish, Prudnik}, a manufacturing town of Prussian Silesia, in the district of Oppeln, is situated on the river Prudnik or Prudnitz, 60 miles to the south-east of Breslau. It contains three Roman Catholic churches, a Protestant church, and a gymnasium. The chief industries are tanning, dyeing, and the manufacture of damask, table-linen, ticking, and woollen stuffs. In 1880 the population was 14,292, including 12,300 Roman Catholics. In 1745, 1760, and 1779 engagements between the Austria ns and Prussians took place near Neustadt, which on the last occasion was bombarded and set on fire. NEUSTADT, or WIENER-NEUSTADT, an important manufacturing town in Lower Austria, is situated between the Fischa and the Leitha, close to the Hungarian frontier, and 25 miles to the south of Vienna. It was almost entirely rebuilt after a destructive fire in 1834, and ranks- among the handsomest provincial towns in Austria. Its. ancient gates, walls, and towers have disappeared, but it still possesses a few mediaeval edifices, the most important of which is the old castle of the dukes of Babenberg, founded in the 12th century, and converted by Maria Theresa into a military academy (400 to 500 pupils). The Gothic chapel contains the remains of the emperor Maximilian I., who was born here in 1459. The parish church, with its two lofty towers, is substantially a Romanesque building of the 13th century, but the choir and transepts are Gothic additions of a later date. The late Gothic church of the old Cistercian abbey contains a handsome monument in memory of Eleonora of Portugal (d. 1467), consort of the emperor Frederick IV. The town-house is also a noteworthy building. The educa tional and charitable institutions include a gymnasium, a real-school, a normal seminary, industrial, commercial, and musical schools, and three hospitals. The chief industrial establishment is an engine-factory, employing 2500 hands, and turning out 150 to 200 locomotives annually; but manufactures of cotton, silk, velvet, pottery, and paper, sugar-refining, and tanning are also extensively carried on. Trade is also brisk, and is facilitated by a canal connecting the town with Vienna, and used chiefly for the transport of coal and timber. The population in 1880 was 23,468, nearly all Roman Catholics. Neustadt was founded in 1192, and was a favourite residence of numerous Austrian sovereigns, acquiring the title of the &quot; ever- faithful town &quot; (die allczc.it gctrcue Stadt) from its unfailing loyalty. In 1246 it was the scene of a victory of the Hungarians over the Austrians ; and in 1486 it was taken by Matthew Corvinus, king of Hungary, who, however, restored it to Maximilian I. four years later. In 1529 and 1683 it was besieged by the Turks. It was at Neustadt that the emperor Rudolf II. granted to the Bohemian Protestants, in 1609, the &quot; Majestatsbrief,&quot; or patent of equal rights, the revocation of which helped to precipitate the Thirty Years War. Compare Boheim, Chronik von Wiener -Neustadt. NEUSTADT-AN-DER-HAARDT, a small manufactur ing town in the Bavarian Palatinate, is picturesquely situated at the base of the Haardt mountains and the mouth of the valley of the Speyerbach, 14 miles to the east of Spires and the Rhine. The Protestant abbey- church, a fine Gothic edifice of 1354-1489, contains the tombs of several Counts Palatine. The other noteworthy buildings are the handsome Roman Catholic church, a modern Gothic structure ; the Saalbau, a large edifice for balls and concerts ; the town-house, formerly a Jesuit college ; the old Latin school ; the real-school ; and the hospital. The chief industries are paper-making, straw- plaiting, distilling, and the manufacture of cloth, gold and silver plate, furniture, starch, and hats. A brisk trade is