STANS  , the

capital of the eastern half (or Nidwalden) of the Swiss canton of Unterwalden . It stands amid orchards at a height of 1493 ft. above the sea-level on a plain at the north foot of the conical Stanserhorn (6238 ft.) . It is, by electric railway, about 2 M. from Stansstad, its port on the south shore of the lake of Lucerne, and 12 M. from Engelberg (with its great Benedictine monastery, founded about 1120), now a much-frequented summer resort, while there is also an electric rail-way from Stans up the Stanserhorn . In 19oo Stans had a population of 2798, all German-speaking and Romanists . Stans was the home of the Winkelried family (q.v.) and has a modern monument to the memory of Arnold von Winkelried, the legendary hero of the battle of Sempach (1386) . In 1481 the holy Nicholas von der Flue composed at Stans by his advice the strife between the Confederates, while in 1798 many persons were massacred here by the French . (W . A . B .