PASSAU, an ancient town and episcopal see of Tiavaria, lies in the district of Lower 13avaria, and occupies a highly picturesque situation at the confluence of the Danube, the Inn, and the Tlz, 90 miles to the north-east of Munich, and close to the Austrian frontier. It consists of the town proper, on the rocky tongue of land between the Danube and the Inn, and of the three suburbs of Innstadt, on the right bank of the Inn, Ilzstadt, on the left bank of the Ilz, and Anger, in the angle between tbe Ilz and the Danube. Passau is one of the most beautiful places on the Danube, a fine effect being produced by the way in which the houses are piled one above another on the heights rising from the river. The best general view is obtained from the Oberhaus, an old fortress now used as a prison, which crowns a hill 300 feet high on the left bank of the Danube. A detailed inspection of the buildings of the town, most of which date from the 1 ith and 18th centuries, scarcely fulfils the expectation aroused by their imposing appearatice as a whole. The most noteworthy are the cathedral, a florid rococo structure on the site of an earlier church, which claims to have been founded in the 5th century; the post-office, in which the treaty of Passau was signed ; the episcopal palace ; the old Jesuit college, with a, library of 30,000 volumes ; the arsenal ; the Romanesque church of the Holy Cross ; and the double church of St Salvator. The old forts and bastions have been demolished, but the Niederhaus, at the base of the Oberhaus, is still extant, though no longer maintained as a fortress. The chief products of the insignificant industry of the town are tobacco, leather, and paper. It also possesses iron and copper foundries and a few barge-building y-ards. The well-known Passau cru-cibles are made at the neighbouring village of Obernzell. Trade is carried on in iron atid timber, large quantities of the latter being floated down the 1.1z. The inhabitants (15,365 in 1880) are nearly all Roman Catholics.

Passau is a town of very ancient origin. The first settlement here is believed to have been the Celtic Boiudurnin, on the site of the present Innstadt ; and the Romans afterwards established a colony of Ratavian veterans (Castra Batava) on the site of the town proper. The bishopric was founded in the 8th centufy-, and most of the sub-sequent history of Passau is made up of broils between the bishops and the townsmen. The fortress of Oberlatus was erected by the former in consequence of a revolt in the 13th century, and at a later period its guns w,re often turned on the town. In 1552 Charles I V. and Elector Manrice of Saxony here signed the treaty of Passau, by which the former was constrained to acknowledge the principle of religions toleration. The town was a frequent object of dispute in the war of the Spanish succession, and it was taken by the Austrians in 1806. The bishopric was secularized in 1803, and its territory annexed to 13avaria two years later. The present bishopric was established in 1817.