Neuss
Collier's New Encyclopedia (1921)
an ancient manufacturing town of Germany, near the left bank of the Rhine, 4 miles W. of Düsseldorf. Its church of of St. Quirinus, a notable specimen of the transition from the Round to the Pointed style, was founded in 1209. Neuss has flourishing ironworks, foundries, flour and iron mills, and manufactures of cottons, woolens, leather, paper, chemicals, etc. Pop. about or NEUSTADT, STADT, a town of Austria; 32 miles S. of Vienna. It is overlooked by the large old castle of the Dukes of Babenberg, now a military academy. The castle contains a fine Gothic chapel (1460) rich in painted windows; and is the burialplace of the Emperor Maximilian I. Prior the World War locomotives and machinery, wire, bells, pottery, starch, leather, and ribbons were among the manufactures. The city, called "the Ever-faithful," was founded in 1192, and was rebuilt after a great fire in 1834. Pop. about 40,000. (noies'-), WEST NEUSTRIA or FRANCE, the name given in the times of the Merovingians and Carlovingians to the W. portion of the Frank empire, after the quadruple division of it which took place in 511. Neustria contained three of these divisions. It extended originally from the mouth of the Scheldt to the Loi Loire, and was bounded by Aquitania on the S., and by Burgundy and Austrasia on the E. The principal cities were Soissons, Paris, Orleans, and Tours. Bretagne was always loosely attached to Neustria, of which the strength lay in the duchy of France. After the cession of the territory afterward called Normandy to the Normans in 912, the name Neustria soon fell into disuse.
What Has Changed in the Last Century
Collier's in 1921 left the population of Neuss blank, but the town it described as "an ancient manufacturing town" 4 miles west of Düsseldorf now holds about 155,000 people and is bound to Düsseldorf by bridges and the S-Bahn as part of the Rhine-Ruhr conurbation. The ironworks and flour mills have largely given way to a huge Rhine inland port, a Pierburg automotive plant and the Alu Norf aluminium rolling mill on the town's edge, one of the largest in the world. St Quirinus, founded in 1209, survived the bombing of the Second World War in damaged form and was restored; it was raised to a papal minor basilica in 2009. Excavation of the Roman legionary fortress of Novaesium beneath the town, begun in the 1880s, has continued and made Neuss one of the best-known Roman military sites on the lower Rhine.
Written for this edition, 2026.