RAVENSBURG  , a

town of Germany, in the kingdom of Wurttemberg, pleasantly situated amid vine-clad hills on the river Schussen, 12 M . N. of Friedrichshafen on the lake of Constance, by the railway of Ulm . Pop . (1905) 14,614, the great majority of whom are Roman Catholics . Its aspect is medieval; it still retains its walls and nine picturesque towers, the most prominent of which, dating from the 15th century, is known as the " Mehlsack," or sack of flour . The town hall is a handsome 15th-century building . The manufactures include linen, cotton, embroidered muslins, pottery, glass and playing-cards . The fruit market is important, and there is trade in cattle, grain and timber . Ravensburg was founded in the 11th century by the Guelphs, and in their ancestral castle on the Veitsburg, which was partially restored in 1892, the Saxon duke, Henry the Lion, was born . In 118o the town passed to the Hohenstaufens, and a century later it became a free town of the Empire . In the 15th century it was a flourishing commercial place, its chief industry being the manufacture of paper . Annexed to Bavaria from 1803 to 181o, it was ceded to Wurttemberg in the latter year .

See Hafner, Geschichte von Ravensburg (Ravensburg, 1887) .