Altona, the most important city of the duchy of Holstein, North Germany, situated on the right bank of the Elbe, below and immediately adjoining Hamburg, and for commercial purposes forming with it a single town; pop. in 1871, 74,131. It is well built, is a free port, and enjoys privileges favorable to its trade and prosperity. It was set up by Denmark as a rival to Hamburg, and passed with Holstein into the possession of Prussia in 1807. It has six churches, a gymnasium with a library of upward of 20,000 volumes, an orphan hospital, an infirmary, a college, an observatory, and a mint. It has an extensive trade, and very considerable manufactories. The chief manufacture is tobacco. There are also soap and oil works, sugar houses, distilleries, chemical works, rope walks, tanneries, and divers manufactories of cotton, silk, and leather. Its ex- i tensive railway and steamboat connections add materially to its importance. Altona was burned by the Swedes, under General Steen-bock, in January, 1713, with circumstances of great barbarity.