FRANEKER, a town of Holland, province of Friesland, is situated 10 miles W. of Leeuwarden, on the canal between that town and Haarlingen. The university founded here in 1585 was abolished by Napoleon I., and its endowments were diverted in 1815 to the support of an athenæum, and later of a gymnasium, with which a physiological cabinet and a botanical garden are connected. Franeker also possesses a very fine observatory. The university buildings are occupied by an asylum for insane. The chief industries of the town are silk-weaving, woollen spinning, and shipbuilding. Population in 1876, 6643.
FRANKENBERG, an important manufacturing town of Saxony, circle of Zwickau, is situated on the Zschopau, 7 miles N.E. of Chemnitz. The principal buildings are the great church, restored in 1874–5, and the new town-house. Frankenberg has extensive woollen, cotton, and silk manufactures, and also dye-works and cigar factories. Its educational establishments include a city school, a real school, and a technical school for engineering, in connexion with which there is a chemical laboratory. Population in 1875, 10,462.
FRANKENHAUSEN, a town of Germany, principality of Schwartzburg-Rudolstadt, is situated on the Little Wipper, 36 miles N.N.E. of Gotha. It consists of an old and a new town, the latter mostly rebuilt since a very destructive fire in 1833, and has an old castle, two churches, a seminary for teachers, a hospital, and a new town-house. Its industries include the manufacture of sugar, cigars, and buttons, and there is a salt mine in the vicinity. At Frankenhausen a battle was fought 15th May 1525, in which the peasants under Thomas Münzer were defeated by the Saxon, Brunswick, and Hessian troops. Population in 1875, 4725.
FRANKENSTEIN, a town in the Prussian province of Silesia, government of Breslau, is situated 35 miles S. by W. of the town of that name. It has a monastery of the charity friars, a garrison, and an old castle. The principal manufactures are linen, woollen, and cotton goods, straw hats, chemical substances, and salt. Population in 1875, 7492.
FRANKENTHAL, a town in the Rhenish district of Bavaria, is situated on the Isenach, 9 miles N.W. of Mannheim, and is connected with the Rhine by a canal 4 miles in length. It has a poorhouse, an infirmary, a deaf and dumb institution, an asylum for insane, and the ruins of an old monastery. Its principal industries are the manufacture of machinery, bell-founding, and brewing.
Frankenthal existed as a village in the 8th century, but it owes its prosperity to a colony of Flemish Protestant refugees who settled there in 1562. After this it rose very rapidly, so that in 1577 it became a town. The Spaniards made an unsuccessful attempt to capture it in 1621, and it was taken by them in 1623. In 1689 it was burned to the ground by the French, and it delivered itself up to the same power in 1796. Population in 1875, 7907.
FRANKFORT, a city of the United States, capital of Franklin county and of the State of Kentucky, is picturesquely situated on both sides of the Kentucky river, on a space of elevated ground bounded by a bluff 150 feet high. It is distant 29 miles W.N.W. from Lexington, and 65 miles E. from Louisville, by rail. The river is crossed at Frankfort by two bridges, and that portion of the town lying on the south side of the river is known as South Frankfort. The principal buildings are the State house, a marble building with a handsome portico supported by Ionic columns, the institution for imbecile children, the State penitentiary, the county court-house, and the public hall. The beautiful cemetery contains the remains of Daniel Boone, the pioneer of Kentucky, who died September 20, 1820. Frankfort has distilleries and flour and cotton mills, and a considerable trade in lumber. The river is navigable for steamers 40 miles above the city. Frankfort was laid out in 1787, and became the capital of the State in 1792. In 1862 it was occupied for a short time by the Confederates. The population in 1860 was 3702, and in 1870, 5396, of whom 2335 were coloured.
