FREISING  , a

town of Germany, in the kingdom of Bavaria, on the Isar, 16 m. by rail N.N.E. of Munich . Pop . (1905) 13,538 . Among its eight Roman Catholic churches the most remarkable is the cathedral, which dates from about 116o and is famous for its curious crypt . Noteworthy also are the old palace of the bishops, now a clerical seminary, the theological lyceum and the town-hall . There are several schools in the town, and there is a statue to the chronicler, Otto of Freising, who was bishop here from 1138 to 1158 . Freising has manufactures of agricultural machinery and of porcelain, while printing and brewing are carried on . Near the town is the site of the Benedictine abbey of Weihenstephan, which existed from 725 to 1803 . This is now a model farm and brewery . Freising is a very ancient town and is said to have been founded by the Romans . After being destroyed by the Hungarians in 955 it was fortified by the emperor Otto II. in 976 and by Duke Well of Bavaria in 1082 . A bishopric was established here in 724 by St Corbinianus, whose brother Erimbert was consecrated second bishop by St Boniface in 739 .

Later on the bishops acquired considerable territorial

power and in the 17th century became princes of the Empire . In 1802 the see was secularized, the bulk of its territories being assigned to Bavaria and the rest to Salzburg, of which Freising had been a suffragan bishopric . In 1817 an archbishopric was established at Freising, but in the following year it was transferred to Munich . The occupant of the see is now called archbishop of Munich and Freising . See C . Meichelbeck, Historiae Frisingensis (Augsburg, 1724-1729, new and enlarged edition 1854) .