Freiburg im Breisgau
[key], city, 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.
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