WERNIGERODE, a principality in Prussia, now mediatised, and forming a portion of the circle of Osterwick, in the province of Saxony. The family of Stolberg-Wernigerode were formerly the sovereigns, and are now the proprietors, and in a secondary sense the governors, having the patronage of all clerical, civil, and judicial offices, and the power of pardoning smaller offences, as well as of granting dispensations respecting marriages and the game-laws. The principality, which includes a part of the Hartz Forest, with the Brocken, is about 101 square miles in extent, comprehending one city, one market-town, eleven villages, and many hamlets and detached farms, with 1530 houses, and 14,640 inhabitants. The capital, of the same name, is situated at the foot of the Hartz Mountains, on a small stream called the Zillerbach, but is 820 feet above the level of the sea. It includes the residence of the court, in a fine situation, with a library of more than 30,000 volumes. The town is irregularly and ill built, but is surrounded with walls. It contains four churches, an orphan-house, a poor-house, a gymnasium, and 870 dwellings, with 5340 inhabitants, who carry on some trade in linens, in paper, in copper, and in distillation, but depend much on the residence of the court, and on the numerous summer visitors to the Hartz. It is in longitude 10. 47. 35. E. and latitude 51. 50. 34. N.