BERGISCH GLADBACH

city, North RhineWestphalia Land (state), western Germany, just east-northeast of Cologne. Chartered in 1856, Bergisch Gladbach has a 12th-century Romanesque church (in the Paffrath district), the moated castles of Zwieffelsstrunden and Blegge, and the 16th-century headquarters of the Order of St. John (in Herrenstrunden). Paper is the city's chief product, but machinery, electrical equipment, wool, glass fibre, and pharmaceutical products are also manufactured, and iron is smelted. Nearby Bensberg, which was annexed by Bergisch Gladbach in 1975, is the site of a nuclear reactor building company. The city serves as a tourist base for the Bergisches Land, a hilly wooded district in the lower Rhine Valley. Pop. (1989 est.) 101,983.