Salisbury

(also New Sarum), a city in southern Great Britain. Located on the Avon River, in Wiltshire. Population, 35,500 (1973). Salisbury has enterprises for the production of foodstuffs and light-industry enterprises. The city is a tourist site.

Salisbury has a grid street plan that developed in the Middle Ages. Architectural monuments include a Gothic cathedral (1220–66; spire, c. 1320–30), the Bishops’ Palace (13th century), the Poultry Cross trade building (c. 1335), and numerous medieval houses. The Museum of Salisbury and South Wilts has a collection of local antiquities.

a city in Southern Rhodesia. Population, including suburbs, 477,000 (1972), of which approximately three-fourths is African. Salisbury was founded in 1890 by English settlers and was named in honor of the Third Marquess of Salisbury. In 1923 it became the capital of the self-governing colony of Southern Rhodesia. From 1953 to 1963 it was also the capital of the Federation of Rhodesia and Nyasaland.

Salisbury is linked by rail with the ports of Beira and Lourenço Marques in Mozambique. It is also a junction for highways and air routes. An important center for trade, industry, and finance, the city produces tobacco, foodstuffs (including sugar), textiles, clothing, chemicals, metal products, and furniture. It also has a motor-vehicle assembly plant and a large tobacco market. Gold is mined in the environs of Salisbury.