Worms
a town of Germany, in Hesse-Darmstadt; three-quarters of a mile from the left bank of the Rhine, 40 miles S. S. E. of Mainz. It is irregularly irregularly built, and is still in part surrounded with its ancient walls. The principal edifice in the town is the venerable cathedral (founded in the 8th century, completed and consecrated in 1101), a noble Romanesque structure with four elegant towers, two domes, and a double choir.
The interior is 357 feet long, 87 feet wide (across the transepts 117 feet), and is very imposing from its grand simplicity. On the N. side of the cathedral is the site of the Bischofhof or episcopal palace, the seat of the diet of April, 1521. It was destroyed by the French in 1689, and again in 1794. On its massive red sandstone substructure the Heil'sche Haus has been erected in the rich Renaissance style. Outside the much-esteemed wine grown in the vicinity. The finest monument in Worms is that to Luther, erected from Rietschel's designs in 1868, at a cost of $85,000. The principal industries of Worms are the manufacture of patent leather, tobacco, beer, soap, and amber wares. Worms is one of the most historical towns of Germany. It was known to the Romans as Borbetomagus, and later as Augusta Vangionum, the capital of the Vangiones.
It was destroyed by Attila and rebuilt by Chlodwig in 486. After the partition of the empire among the sons of Ludwig the Pious, Worms became a German free town under the protection of the Elector of the Palatinate. Already in 1255 it belonged to the Confederation of Rhenish towns, and it contained in the time of Friedrich Barbarossa 70,000 inhabitants. It was the seat of many Imperial Diets, most famous that under Karl V., which Luther made memorable to the world. In 1632 the suburbs of the town were leveled by the Swedish Colonel Haubold, and in 1689, the town itself was ruthlessly destroyed by Melac and the young Duc de Créqui under the orders of Louis XIV. In September, 1792, part of it was leveled by the French under Custine, and at the peace of Lunéville in 1801 it was given to France. The peace of Paris in 1814 gave it back to Germany, and the Vienna Congress in 1815 to Hesse-Darmstadt. French troops occupied the town at the end of the World War in accordance with the armistice terms. Pop. about 50,000.