gabled houses, generally of the 17th century, but those
of the upper and lower new town, and the three suburbs, are not
surpassed by any in Germany. The principal streets are the
Konigs-strasse (5100 ft. long and 60 broad), the Schone Aussicht, and
the Stande-platz (180 ft. broad with four rows of linden trees). The
large Friedrichs-platz is 1000 by 450 ft. in area. In it stands a marble
statue of the landgrave Frederick II. There is a fine view from the open
side. The former residence of the electors (_Residenzschloss_) fronts
this square, as well as the Museum Fridericianum, with a _facade_ of
Roman-Ionic columns. The museum contains various valuable collections of
curiosities, interesting mosaics, coins, casts, a library of 230,000
volumes, and valuable manuscripts. In the cabinet of curiosities there
is a complete collection of clocks and watches from the earliest to the
present time. Among these is the so-called Egg of Nuremberg, a watch
made about 1500 by Peter Henlein. Among other public places and
buildings worthy of notice are the Roman Catholic church, with a
splendid interior; the Konigs-platz, with a remarkable echo; the
Karls-platz, with the statue of the landgrave Charles; and the
Martins-platz, with a large church--St Martin's--with twin towers,
containing the burial-vaults of the Hessian princes. The gallery of
paintings, housed in a handsome building erected in 1880 on the Schone
Aussicht, contains one of the finest small collections in Europe,
especially rich in the works of Rembrandt, Frans Hals and Van Dyck.

The town contains numerous educational institutions, including a
technical college, a school of painting, a celebrated classical school,
which the emperor William II. attended, and a military academy. The
descendants of the French refugees who founded the upper new town have a
church and hospital of their own. There are three Roman Catholic
churches, an English church, and two synagogues. Music is much
cultivated, and there is an opera with a first-rate orchestra, of which
Ludwig Spohr was at one time conductor. The opera-house or theatre was
built by Jerome Napoleon, but in 1906 money was voted for a new
building on the Auetor. A new Rathaus (town-hall) has been erected.
There are also the Bose Museum, containing collections of pictures and
antiquities of Hessian origin, museums of natural history and
ethnography, an industrial exhibition hall, and an industrial art
school. A handsome Gothic Lu