Page:Encyclopædia Britannica, Ninth Edition, v. 10.djvu/869

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GOT—GOT
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palace. The educational establishments include excellent city schools, a gymnasium (founded in 1524, one of the most famous in Germany), a ladies’ school of the first order, a training school for teachers and another for female teachers, a free school, a trade school, and a commercial school. Among the other institutions are a lying-in hospital, a surgical and eye hospital, a private lunatic asylum, an orphanage, a reformatory, a magdalen institute, and a school for the board and education of destitute girls. The observatory, erected by Duke Ernest II. in 1787, was in 1857 transferred to a new site in the neighbourhood of the park. Formerly the town obtained its water supply by means of the Leina canal, which was excavated in 1369, but watzr for drinking purposes has since 1874 been ob- tained from the Thnringian Forest. Gotha is one of the most active commercial towns of Thuringia, its manufac- tures including sausages, for which it has a great reputation, porcelain, tobacco, sugar, machinery, mechanical and surgical instruments, musical instruments, shoes, lamps, and toys. There are also a number of nurseries and market gardens. The book trade is represented by about a dozen firms, including that of the great geographical house of

Perthcs, Population (1875), 22,928.



Plan of Gotha.


1. Catholic Chapel. 9. Gymnasium (with 14. Ducal Palace. 2. St Margaret's Church. Liit’fler's Monument). 15. Telegraph Office. 3. Arnold‘s Monument. 10. Cloister Church. 16. Perthes's Publishing 4. Theatre. 11 'l'iiehterschnlc (Lucas House. 5. Lunatic Asylum. Cranach‘s House). 17. Friedrichsthal Palace. 6. Cathedral. 12. House of the States of 18. Ducal Stables. 7. Town-Hall. the Duchy. l9. Observatory. 8. Pest-Office. 13. Mint. 20. Ducal Burying-Place.


Gotha existed as a village in the time of Charlemagne. In 930 the Abbot Gotthard of llel‘sfeld surrounded it with walls. It was known as a town as early as 1109, about which time it came into the possession of the landgraves of Thuringia. On the extinction of that line Gotha came into the possession of the electors of Saxony, and on the division of their estates between Frederick the Soft- hearted and William, it fell to the share of the latter, after whose death it was inherited by the Ernestine line of dukes. After the battle of Miihlberg in 1517, the castle of Grimmr-nstein was partly destroyed, but it was again restored in 1551. In 1566 the town was taken from Duke John 1“ rederit-k by August of Saxony. After the death without issue of John Frederick's two sons, it came into the possession of Duke Ernest the Pious, the fourth of the line of the dukes of Gotha ; and on the extinction of this line it was, in 1826, united, along with the dukedom, to Coburg.

See Got/m und seine Umgcbng, Gotha, 1851; Kiihne, L’cz'trdgr; zn-r Gcschichte dcr Entwiclccltmg dcr socialcn Zusta‘ndc dcr Strait and dcs Ilcrzogth-ums Gotha, Gotha, 1862; Humbert, Les rillrs dc la T/Lun'ngc, Paris, 1869; and Beck, Gcschz'chte dcr Starlt Gutha, Gotha, 1870.

GOTHENBURG (Swedish, Gotebmy), the second city

and chief commercial town of Sweden, and the capital of a “liin ” of the same name, is situated in a low valley sur- rounded by bare hills, on the south bank and 1% miles from the mouth of the Giltha river, 282 miles W.S.W. of Stock- holm by rail (by the Gatha Canal 370 miles). Gothenburg is well and regularly built, mostly of stone or brick, with wide and well-paved streets, and in its general appearance much resembles an English town. It consists of two main portions, the town proper and its suburbs,—-together 5% square miles in extent. The first may be described as a semicircle extending south-eastward over a marshy flat from the bank of the Giltha as its diameter. This semicircle is crossed by the East and West Harbour Canals and from east to west by the Great Harbour Canal, which divides the town proper into two parts, a north and a south. The canals are enclosed with hewn stone, lined with trees, and crossed by 21 iron bridges. The finest streets of Gothen- burg are the North and South Harbour Streets. Gustavus Adolphns’s Tory (market-place), with a bronze statue of Gustavus Adolphus by Fogelberg, occupies the ccntre of the town, while the principal market-place is now (since 1849) Kungstorget (the king’s market—place). The favourite promenades are the Horticultural Society’s Park, the King’s Park, with Molin’s group (the Beltbucklers) and the Nya A lléen (new alleys), situated on the south outskirts. Gothen- burg has seven Lutheran churches, of which the finest are the cathedral (Gustavii Domkyrlca), called after Gustavus Adolphus, founded 1633, rebuilt afterfires in 1742 and 1815, now a cruciform structure 173 feet high and 194 feet long by 75 feet broad, Haga church, erected in 1856, and the German church, rebuilt 1747—1798 ; an English Episcopal church (1855); a Catholic chapel; and a synagogue (1855). The other chief buildings are the exchange, in Italian style (1844), with marble statues of Odin by F ogelberg (1855), and of Oscar I. by Molin (1855); the residence house, built by Torstenson after the Thirty Years’ War; the town- house, founded 1670, enlarged 181-1 ; the old Icroahus, where the diet of 1660 was held; the new custom-house (1866); the artillery barracks (1806) for 750 men; the prison (1854) ; the railway station (1858); the arsenal (1860); the new theatre (1856—59) seated for 1030; and the Sahlgren new hospital (1848—55). Gothenburg is the seat of a bishop and of a provincial governor. It has 34 schools of various kinds, including two Latin schools, a school- teachers’ seminary, an extensive Elementdr-ldroeerk, founded 1630, rebuilt 1859, with a library of 15,000 vols, a trade institute, the Chalmers’ technical school (1869), another technical school (1848), a “real-gymnasium ” (184-4), and a navigation-school (1862). The museum, founded in 1833, contains collections for natural history, entomo- logy, anatomy, botany, archaeology, and ethnography, a picture and sculpture gallery, and a collection of 6000 coins and medals. lothenburg has numerous benevo- lent and charitable institutions, mainly supported by the munificence of private citizens. The industries are ship- building (carried on in four docks), linen and cotton weaving, brewing, and the manufacture of furniture, machinery, lucifer—matches, paper, sugar, and tobacco. In 1877, 2213 ships of 532,127 tons (Swedish, 1221 of 270,900 tons; British, 267 of 130,219 tons) entered at the port, while 1781 ships of 526,352 tons (British,

261 of 118,236 tons) cleared. The mercantile fleet be-