Landau, a fortified town of Rhenish Bavaria, on the Queich, 18 m. N. W. of Carlsruhe, on the railway from Paris to Mentz; pop. in 1871, 6,921, exclusive of the garrison. The ground plan of the ramparts is an octagon, surrounded by moats. The barracks and casemates are bomb-proof. The town is regularly built, has two gates, a large parade, a church used by Protestants and Catholics in common, various public offices, and some manufactories. During the thirty years' war it was taken seven times by the troops of Count Mansfeld, by the Spaniards, Swedes, imperialists, and French. In 1680 it was ceded to France and fortified by Vauban. It was taken in 1702 by Margrave Louis of Baden, but was recovered by the French in 1703, taken by the Austrians in 1704, and held till 1713, when it was again ceded to France. It sustained a siege of nine months in 1793, when 30,000 shells were thrown into it. The treaty of Paris in 1814 confirmed it to France, but the treaties of 1815 gave it to Bavaria, as a fortress of the Germanic confederation.