a fortified town of the kingdom of Prussia, in the province of West Prussia, government and 52 miles S.S.W. of Marienwerder, on the right bank of the Vistula, here crossed by a wooden bridge 823 yards long. It is defended by walls, bastions, and two forts, and entered by two gates; and it consists of an old and a new town. There are here five churches, one of which contains a statue of Copernicus, who was a native of the town, a fine town-hall, a gymnasium and other schools, several convents, and manufactures of woollen and linen cloth, hosiery, leather, silk, and much esteemed gingerbread. An active trade is carried on in corn and timber. Thorn was founded by the Teutonic knights in 1232, and admitted into the Hanseatic League in the beginning of the fourteenth century. It was taken by Charles XII. of Sweden in 1703, after a siege of four months. Pop. 13,113.