Brixen, Stadt#
Brixen (Bressanone, South Tyrol, Italy), town, alt. 559 m, pop. 16,272 of which 11,663 are German speaking, 4,399 Italian speaking, 210 Ladin speaking. In 1910 Brixen was capital of an Austrian district and had a population of 6,551 (including the garrison), was a Catholic diocese and deanery, had a theological school, the Vincentinum seminary, an Imperial Augustinian Obergymnasium (residential secondary school). Establishments of the "English Ladies", of the order of St. Clare and of the tertiary order of the Sisters of the Holy Cross.
Bronze Age settlement on the Plabacher Buehel hill; first documented
mention in 827 under the name of "Pressena", spiritual principality
since the Middle Ages, in 1803 secularised and annexed to the Tyrol.
Baroque cathedral (1745-1755) with Romanesque parts and a ceiling
fresco by P. Troger, Romanesque cloister (around 1200) with Gothic
murals; parish church with "white tower" (around 1459); Franciscan
monastery (present buildings from around 1683) with murals by painters
of the Brixen School; the episcopal castle (since around 1265
episcopal residence), altered around 1600 (Renaissance style), houses
the diocesan museum; Sonnentor gate; Saebenertor gate.
Literature#
A. Sparber, Die Bischofstadt Brixen in ihrer geschichtlichen Entwicklung, 31979.