GERMERSHEIM, a fortified town in llhcni<h lavaria, the chief town of a circle, is situate-.1 at the confluence of the Qneieh and the llhine, 8 miles S.W. of Spires. 1t possesses a Catholic and a Protestant clmrch, a Latin school. and a hospital. The industries include fishing, shipbuild- ing, brewing, the manufacture of cigars, and the cultivation of vegetables, fruit, flax, and hemp. The number of the garriSon in the town is usually about 2500.
Germersheim existed as a Roman stronghold under the name of Vicus Julius. The citadel was rebuilt by the emperor Conrad II., but the town itself was founded in 1276 by the emperor Rudolph I., who granted it the rights of a free imperial city. He died here in 1291. From 1330 to 1622, when it was conquered by Austria, the town formed part of the Palatinate of the Rhine. From 1644 to 1650 it was in the possession of France; but on the conclusion of the peace of Westphalia it was again joined to the Palatinate. In 1674 it was captured and devastated by the French under 'l’urenne, and after the death of the elector Charles in 1685, it was claimed by the French as a dependency of Alsace, on which account followed the Germersheim succession war, which lasted till the peace of ltyswiek in 1697. Through the intervention of the pope in 1702, the French, on payment of a large sum, agreed to vacate the town, and in 1715 its fortifications were rebuilt. ()n the 3d July 1744 the French were defeated there by the imperial troops, and on the 19th and 22d July 1793 by the Austrians. In 1835 the beautiful new town was built, aml the present extensive fortifications commence-.1. "’ including the garrison, Population in 1875, 6456.
GERONA, a city of Spain, the chief town of the province of Gerona (one of the four into which Catalonia was divided), is situated about 54 miles N of Barcelona on the railway to Perpignan in France, near the junction of the Ter and the Ofia. The older part of the town occupies the steep slope of the hill of the Capuchins, and with its old- fashioned buildings presents a picturesque appearance against a background of loftier heights; while the newer portion stretches down into the plain and beyond the river, which adds to the effect of the scene by a bridge of three arches. The old city walls with their bastions still remain, though in a dilapidated state; and the hill is crowned by what were at one time very strong fortifications. At present (:erona is a comparatively insignificant place, although it is the seat of a bishop, has four parish churches, an instituto, a seminary, a public library, and a theatre, numbers about 15,000 inhabitants, and carries on the manufacture of paper and cotton and woollen goods. To the ecclesiologist, ‘iowever, it offers unusual attractions. The cathedral is one of the grandest specimens of Gothic architecture in Spain, the nave being the widest pointed vault in Christendom, as it measures no less than 73 feet from side to side, while Albi, the next in size, is only 58 feet, and Westminster Abbey is only 38. The old cathedral on the same site was used as a mosque by the Moors, and on their expulsion in 1015 it appears to have been very greatly modified, if not entirely rebuilt. During the 11th century new works were again carried out on an extensive scale, but it was not till the beginning of the 15th that the proposal to erect the present magnificent nave was originated by the master of the Works, Gullielmo Boffiy. “The keystone of the last division of the vault,” says Mr Street, “ seems to have been placed in the time of Bishop Benito, so late as circa 1559,” and in 1531 the same bishop laid the first stone of the bell tower. “ At the east end of the nave three arches open into the choir and its aisles, which with their many subdivisions give an extraordinary impression of size to the vast vault of the nave, and make it look larger than it. really is.” The general appearance of the exterior is rather ungainly, but there is a fine approach by a flight of 86 steps to the facade, which rises in tiers and terminates in an oval rose-window. Among the interior decorations the most remarkable is the retablo and baldachin of the 14th century; and among the tombs may be mentioned those of Bishop Berenger (ob. 1408), Ramon Berenger (Cap de Estopa), and the Countess Ermesinda (ob. 1057). The collegiate church of San Feliu (St Felix) is mainly of the 14th century, but it was considerably modified in the 16th, and its facade dates from the 18th. It is one of the few Spanish churches that can boast of a genuine spire, and it thus forms a striking feature in the general view of the town. Besides the tomb of Alvarez and the sepulchre of the patron saint, it contains an image of St Narciso, which, according to the local super— stition, had the power of producing swarms of poisonous flies, as was sufficiently provel by the destruction of the French investing the city in 1285 and again in 1681. The Benedictine church of San Pedro de los (tallos is an interesting Romanesque building of early date ; and in the same vicinity is a small church worthy of notice as a rare Spanish example of a transverse triapsal plan.
Gerona is the ancient G'cru-nda, a city of the Ausetani. It boasts that it is the place in which St Paul and St James first rested when they came to Spain ; and it became the see of a bishop about 247. For a considerable period it was in the hands of the Moors, and their emir, Soleiman, was in alliance with l’epin about 759. It was taken by Charlemagne in 785; but the Moors regained and sacked it in 795, and it was not till 1015 that they were finally expelled. At a later date it gave the title of count to the king of Aragon’s eldest son. Into the details of its later vicissitudes it is needless to enter; but its historians tell how it has been besieged no fewer than twenty-five times in all, and that only four of the sieges have resulted in its capture. The investment by the French under Marshal llocquisicourt in 1653, that of 1684 by the French under Marshal Belfond, and the successful enterprise of Marshal Noailles in 1694, are the three great events of the 17th century. Surremlercd by the French at the peace of ltyswiek, it was again captured by Marshal Noailles in 1706, after a brilliant defence; and in 1717 it held out against the Austrians. fut its noblest resistance was yet to be made. In May lbot) it was besieged by the French, with 35,000 troops, under Verdier, Augereau, and St (‘yr ; forty batteries were erected against it, and a heavy bombard- ment maintained; but under the leadership of Mariano Alvarez it held out till famine and fever compelled a eapitulation on 12th December. The French, it is said, had spent 20,000 bombs and 30,000 cannon balls, and their loss was estimated at 15,000 men.
See Juan Gaspar Roig y Jalpi, Itrszmzcn dc [as Grandczas, &e.. Barcelona, 1678; J. A. Nieto y Samaniego, .llcmorius, Tarmgona, 1810 ; Street, Gothic Architecture in Spain.
GERRHA, an ancient city of Arabia Felix, on the west side of what is now the Persian Gulf, described by Strabo as inhabited by Chaldzean exiles from Babylon, who built their houses of salt and repaired them by the application of salt water. Three identifications of the site have been attempted, D’Auville choosing El Katig, 1\' iebnhr preferring Koneit, and Forster suggesting the ruins at the head of the bay behind the islands of Bahrcin.
whole or parts of the five old districts of (fascony, viz., Armagnac, Astarac, Lomagne, Connninges, and (‘omlornois. It is bounded N. by the department of Lot-et-Garonne, 1‘). by Tarn—et—Garonne and Haute—Garonne, S. by llautes— Pyrenees and BasscsPyrenées, and W. by Landes. It lies between 431 17' and 44" 5' N. lat.,and between 1° 10' 13., and 0° 18' 111'. long, being about 72 miles in length from E. to “1., and 53 in breadth from N. to S. This department is hilly, particularly in the south, where it is mostly covered with ramifications of the Pyrenees. Some of these in the south rise nearly 1200 feet above the level of the sea, but they rapidly decrease in height towards the north. The principal of them run from N.E., N., and N.W., and are separated by longitudinal valleys of great beauty and fertility, narrow in the south, but opening in the north toa width of 3 or 4 miles. . The greater part of the depart- ment belongs to the basin of the “atomic, while a small portion in the west is drained by the Adour. The chief afilucnts of the formerare the Save, (limone, A rratz, (tors, and Raise ; and those of the latter, the Arms, Midou, and Dousc, the last two uniting and taking the name of Midouse, before joining the Adour. The climate is temperate and salubrious,
but very changeable. There is seldom any snow, and there
