JENA, a university town of Germany, in the grand duchy of Saxe-Weimar,
on the left bank of the Saale, 56 m. S.W. from Leipzig by the
Grossberigen-Saalfeld and 12 m. S.E. of Weimar by the Weimar-Gera lines
of railway. Pop. (1905), 26,355. Its situation in a broad valley
environed by limestone hills is somewhat dreary. To the north lies the
plateau, descending steeply to the valley, famous as the scene of the
battle of Jena. The town is surrounded by promenades occupying the site
of the old fortifications; it contains in addition to the medieval
market square, many old-fashioned houses and quaint narrow streets.
Besides the old university buildings, the most interesting edifices are
the 15th-century church of St Michael, with a tower 318 ft. high,
containing an altar, beneath which is a doorway leading to a vault, and
a bronze statue of Luther, originally destined for his tomb; the
university library, in which is preserved a curious figure of a dragon;
and the bridge across the Saale, as long as the church steeple is high,
the centre arch of which is surmounted by a stone carved head of a
malefactor. Across the river is the "mountain," or hill, whence a fine
view is obtained of the town and surroundings, and hard by the
Fuchs-Turm (Fox tower) celebrated for student orgies, while in the
centre of the town is the house of an astronomer, Weigel, with a deep
shaft through which the stars can be seen in the day time. Thus the
seven marvels of Jena are summed up in the Latin lines:--
_Ara, caput, draco, mons, pons, vulpecula turris,
Weigeliana domus; septem miracula Jenae._
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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