GMUND  , a

town of Germany, in the kingdom of Wurttemberg,' in a charming and fruitful valley on the Hems, here spanned by a beautiful bridge, 31 M . E.N.E. of Stuttgart on the railway to Nordlingen . Pop . (1905) 18,699 . It is surrounded by old walls, flanked with towers, and has a considerable number of ancient buildings, among which are the fine church of the Holy Cross; St John's church, which dates from the time of the Hohenstaufen; and, situated on a height near the town, partly hewn out of the rock, the pilgrimage church of the Saviour . Among the modern buildings are the gymnasium, the drawing and trade schools, the Roman Catholic seminary, the town hall and the industrial art museum . Clocks and watches are manufactured here and also other articles of silver, while the town has a considerable trade in corn, hops and fruit . The scenery in the neighbourhood is very beautiful, near the town being the district called Little Switzerland . Gmund was surrounded by walls in the beginning of the 12th century by Duke Frederick of Swabia . It received town rights from Frederick Barbarossa, and after the extinction of the Hohenstaufen became a free imperial town, It retained its independence till 1803, when it came into the possession of Wurttemberg . Gmund is the birth-place of the painter Hans= Baldung (1475—1545) and of the architect Heinrich Arler or Parler (fl . 1350) .

In the

middle ages the population was about 1o,000 . See Kaiser, Gmund and seine Umgebung (1888) . ' There are two places of this name in Austria . (I) Gmund, a town in Lower Austria, containing a palace belonging to the imperial family, (2) a town in Carinthia, with a beautiful Gothic church and some interesting ruins .