(Germ. Osnabrück), a town of Hanover, capital of a province of the same name, stands in a valley on the Hase, a tributary of the Ems, 71 miles W. by S. of Hanover. It is surrounded by an old wall and ditch, and is entered by five gates. It is regularly laid out, and the most part of the houses are low and meanly built, but in the vicinity there are many handsome country houses. The cathedral is a fine edifice in the Romanesque style, built in the eleventh and beginning of the twelfth century. It has two square towers, and contains, among other curiosities, a richly-carved comb, said to have belonged to Charlemagne; relics of St. Crispin, St. Crispian, and other saints; and many valuable gold and silver crucifixes. The Lutheran churches of St. Katherine and St. Mary, and the Roman Catholic one of St John, are among the edifices most worthy of note in Osnaburg. The town-house, a fine castellated building, contains the hall in which, at the same time as in Münster, the treaty of Westphalia was concluded in 1648. The portraits of the ambassadors at this congress are still to be seen in the hall; and the town-house contains a collection of ancient drinking-vessels, arms, coins, and other antiquities. The town contains also several schools, hospitals, a workhouse, and a house of correction. Manufactures of coarse woollen stuffs, leather, linen, tobacco, and chemical products are carried on; and there is an active trade in these articles, in cattle, and agricultural produce. Linen is also made in large quantities in the vicinity, and sent hither to be stamped and sold. Osnaburg was a village of some importance as early as the time of Charlemagne. In 1082 it was first fortified; and at a later period it entered the Hanseatic League. It did not, however, attain the dignity of a free city. In 1626 a castle was built near the walls of Osnaburg by Bishop Francis Williams, in order to reduce to obedience the citizens, many of whom had embraced the Protestant faith; but this was destroyed by them in 1647. The province of Osnaburg has an area of 2107 square miles, and is bounded on the N. by the province of Aurich and the duchy of Oldenburg, E. and S. by Rhenish Prussia, and W. by Holland. Belonging to the plain of Northern Germany, the surface is almost entirely level, and the soil, being sandy and barren, yields but a scanty supply of corn. The principal productions are, cattle, hemp, and flax; while coarse linen and woollen fabrics are the chief among the manufactures. The country is famous for its jams, which are largely exported. The present province of Osnaburg nearly corresponds to the ancient bishopric of that name, which was the earliest see founded in Saxony by Charlemagne. Many of the people having become Protestants, it was decided by the treaty of Westphalia that the see should be held alternately by a Roman Catholic and by a Protestant bishop, the latter to be always chosen from the House of Brunswick-Lüneburg. The last prince bishop of Osnaburg was Frederic, Duke of York, the second son of George III., who in 1803 made over the see, now only a temporal province, to Hanover. Osnaburg subsequently formed part of the kingdom of Westphalia and of the French empire; but was restored to Hanover after the fall of Napoleon. Pop. of the province (1855), 259,821; of the town (1852), 13,718. Of the inhabitants of the province at the above date, there were 88,814 Lutherans, 25,951 of the Reformed Church, and 144,321 Roman Catholics.