Kissingen
KISSINGEN, a town and watering-place of Germany, in the kingdom of Bavaria, delightfully situated in a broad valley surrounded by high and well-wooded hills, on the Franconian Saale, 656 ft. above sea-level, 62 m. E. of Frankfort-on-Main, and43N.E.of Wiirzburgby rail. Pop. (1900), 4757. Its streets are regular and its houses attractive. It has an Evangelical, an English, a Russian and three Roman Catholic churches, a theatre, and various benevolent institutions, besides all the usual buildings for the lodging, cure and amusement of the numerous visitors who are attracted to this, the most popular watering-place in Bavaria. In the Kurgarten, a tree-shaded expanse between the Kurhaus and the handsome colonnaded Konversations-Saal, are the three principal springs, the Rak6czy, the Pandur and the Maxbrunnen, of which the first two, strongly impregnated with iron and salt, have a temperature of 51-26 F.; the last (50-72) is like Sellers or Seltzer water. At short distances from the town are the intermittent artesian spring Solensprudel, the Schonbornsprudel and the Theresienquelle; and in the same valley as Kissingen are the minor spas of Bocklet and Briickenau. The waters of Kissingen are prescribed for both internal and external use in a great variety of diseases. They are all highly charged with salt, and productive government salt-works were at one time stationed near Kissingen. The number of persons who visit the place amounts to about 20,000 a year. The manufactures of the town, chiefly carriages and furniture, are unimportant; there is also a trade in fruit and wine.
The salt springs were known in the 9th century, and their medicinal properties were recognized in the 16th, but it was only during the 19th century that Kissingen became a popular resort. The town belonged to the counts of Henneberg until 1394, when it was sold to the bishop of Wiirzburg. With this bishopric it passed later to Bavaria. On the loth of July 1866 the Prussians defeated the Bavarians with great slaughter near Kissingen. On the 13th of July 1874 the town was the scene of the attempt of the fanatic Kullmann to assassinate Prince Bismarck, to whom a statue has been erected. There are also monuments to Kings Louis I. and Maximilian I. of Bavaria.
See Balling, Die Heilquellen und Bdder zu Kissingen ( Kissingen, 1886); A. Sotier, Bad Kissingen (Leipzig, 1883); Werner, Bad Kissingen ah Kurort (Berlin, 1904); Leusser, Kissingen fur Flerzkranke (Wiirzburg, 1902); Diruf, Kissingen und seine Heilquellen (Wiirzburg, 1892) ; and Roth, Bad Kissingen (Wiirzburg, 1901).
Note - this article incorporates content from Encyclopaedia Britannica, Eleventh Edition, (1910-1911)
