ARNSTADT  , a

town in the principality of Schwarzburg-Sondershausen, Germany, on the river Gera, 11 m . S. of Erfurt, with which it is connected by rail . Pop . (1900) 14,413 . There are five churches, four Protestant and one Catholic . The Evangelical Liebfrauenkirche, a Romanesque building (mainly 12th-century), has two octagonal towers and a xoth-century porch . The palace contains collections of pictures and porcelain, and attached to it is a magnificent tower, all that remains of the castle built in 156o . The town hall dates from 156x . The industries of Arnstadt include iron and other metal founding, the manufacture of leather, cloth, tobacco, weighing-machines, paper, playing-cards, chairs, gloves, shoes, iron safes, and beer, and market-gardening and trade in grain and wood are carried on . There are copper-mines in the neighbourhood, as well as tepid saline springs, the waters of which are used for bathing, and are much frequented in summer . Arnstadt dates back to the 8th century . It was bought in 1306 by the counts of Schwarzburg, who lived here till 1716 .