HEILSBERG

heilsberg, a town of germany, in the province of east prussia, at the junction of the simser and alle, 38 m. s. of konigsberg. pop. (1905), 6042. it has an evangelical and a roman catholic church, and an old castle formerly the seat of the prince-bishops of ermeland, but now used as an infirmary. the principal industries are tanning, dyeing and brewing, and there is considerable trade in grain. the castle founded at heilsberg by the teutonic order in 1240 became in 1306 the seat of the bishops of ermeland, an honour which it retained for 500 years. on the 10th of june 1807 a battle took place at heilsberg between the french under soult and murat, and the russians and prussians under bennigsen. heilsbronn (or kloster-heilsbronn), a village of germany, in the bavarian province of middle franconia, with a station on the railway between nuremberg and ansbach, has 1200 inhabitants. in the middle ages it was the seat of one of the great monasteries of germany. this foundation, which belonged to the cistercian order, owed its origin to bishop otto of bamberg in 1132, and continued to exist till 1555. its sepulchral monuments, many of which are figured by hocker, _heilsbronnischer antiquitatenschatz_ (ansbach, 1731-1740), are of exceptionally high artistic interest. it was the hereditary burial-place of the hohenzollern family and ten burgraves of nuremberg, five margraves and three electors of brandenburg, and many other persons of note are buried within its walls. the buildings of the monastery have mostly disappeared, with the exception of the fine church, a romanesque basilica, restored between 1851 and 1866, and possessing paintings by albert durer. the "monk of heilsbronn" is the ordinary appellation of a didactic poet of the 14th century, whose _sieben graden_, _tochter syon_ and _leben des heiligen alexius_ were published by j. f. l. t. merzdorf at berlin in 1870. see rehm, _ein gang durch und um die munster-kirche zu kloster-heilsbronn_ (ansbach, 1875); stillfried, _kloster-heilsbronn, ein beitrag zu den hohenzollernschen forschungen_ (berlin, 1877); muck, _geschichte von kloster-heilsbronn_ (nordlingen, 1879-1880); j. meyer, _die hohenzollerndenkmale in heilsbronn_ (ansbach, 1891); and a. wagner, _uber den monch von heilsbronn_ (strassburg, 1876).