Marburg an der Lahn

University town in Hesse, Germany, on the River Lahn, 80 km/50 mi north of Frankfurt-am-Main; population (2005 est) 79,100. There are chemical, machinery, and pottery industries. The university was founded in 1527 as a centre of Protestant teaching. Martin Luther and Ulrich Zwingli disputed on religion at Marburg in 1529.

The 13th-century Elisabethkirche was built to contain the tomb of St Elizabeth of Hungary, whose remains, however, are no longer buried here; Frederick II was also once buried in the church, as is General Hindenburg, second president of the Weimer Republic. A neo-Gothic castle (rebuilt 1874–91) dominates the old town from its hilltop, now occupied by the university. The town contains numerous institutes and clinics of the university, a botanic garden, the University Museum of Art, and the Mineralogical Museum. The town received many refugees after 1945.