HAVELBERG, an ancient town of Brandenburg, Prussia, in the . government district of Potsdrun and the circle of Westpriegnitz, is situated on the Havel, about 6i miles from its junction with the Elbe. The nearest station is Glowen (61 miles), on the Berlin and Hamburg Railway. The town is built partly on an island in the Havel and partly on hills on the right bank of the river, on one of which stands the fine cathedral. The two parts, which are connected by a bridge, were incorporated as one town in 1875. Havelberg is the seat of a commission of justice. The inhabitants are chiefly engaged in farming, tobacco and pin manufacturing, sugar-refining, and shipbuilding, and in the timber trade. Population in 1875, 6907.

Otto I. founded a bishopric at Havelberg so early as 946 ; the bishop, however, generally resided at Plattenburg or Wittstock, few miles to the north. In 1548 the bishopric was reduced, and the cathedral passed to the Protestant Chinch and retained its endowments till the edict of 1810, by which all former ecclesiastical possessions were assumed by the crown. The final secularization was delayed till 1819. Havelberg was formerly a strong fortress, but in the Thirty Years' War it was taken from the Danish by the imperial troops in 1627. Recaptured by the Swedes in 1631, and again in 1635 and 1636, it was in 1637 retaken by the Saxons under Klitzeng. It suffered severely from a conflagration in 1870.