The American Cyclopædia (1879)/Fulda

FULDA, a town of Prussia, in the province of Hesse-Nassau, on a river of the same name, here crossed by three bridges, 56 m. N. E. of Frankfort; pop. in 1871, 9,490. It contains a palace and gardens, formerly the residence of the prince-bishops, a number of churches, two convents, an ecclesiastical seminary, and a number of schools. The cathedral is a fine modern building, the fourth which has stood on this site. Of the ancient church it retains only a crypt, in which is the sarcophagus of St. Boniface. There is a library of 50,000 volumes, manufactories of cotton, linen, and woollen, and trade in corn and cattle. The abbey of Fulda was founded about 750 under the auspices of St. Boniface, became flourishing in the following century through the learning of Rabanus Maurus, who taught at the school connected with the abbey, and obtained from Otho I. in 968 the primacy of all abbeys in Germany. It was raised to the dignity of a bishopric in 1752. This was secularized in 1803, and given to the prince of Orange-Nassau, was annexed to the grand duchy of Berg in 1806, and in 1809 to the principality of Frankfort. After the peace most of the territory was given to the electorate of Hesse, and in 1866 was with the latter annexed to Prussia.