Wiesbaden (Vees-bah'den), chief town of a Prussian district in the province of Hesse-Nassau, was formerly capital of the independent duchy of Nassau. One of the oldest and most famous of the German watering-places, it is delightfully situated on the south slopes of Mount Taunus, 5 miles NW. of Mainz. It has been called 'a city of lodging-houses;' the principal buildings are the palace (1840); the Kursaal (1S10), with delightful park and gardens; the new town-hall (188S); the museum, picture-galleries, and library; the handsome Protestant church (1853-62); the superb Greek chapel (1855), built by the Duke of Nassau as a mausoleum for his duchess; the Catholic church; the synagogue, etc. Of its twenty hot-springs, which were known to the Romans, the principal is the Kochbrunnen ('Boiling-spring:' 156° F.). The saline hot-springs, containing silica and iron, are efficacious in gout, rheumatism, scrofula, and other skin diseases and nervous affections. Though the public gaming-tables were abolished in 1872, the number of visitors annually is about 60,000; some 5000 or 6000 strangers winter here annually. Pop. (1871) 35,463; (1000) 86,111.