Hainburg an der Donau
Encyclopedia
Bruck an der Leitha
Bruck an der Leitha is a city located in Lower Austria, Austria at the border to the Burgenland, which is marked by the Leitha river....
district, Lower Austria
Lower Austria
Lower Austria is the northeasternmost state of the nine states in Austria. The capital of Lower Austria since 1986 is Sankt Pölten, the most recently designated capital town in Austria. The capital of Lower Austria had formerly been Vienna, even though Vienna is not officially part of Lower Austria...
, Austria
Austria
Austria , officially the Republic of Austria , is a landlocked country of roughly 8.4 million people in Central Europe. It is bordered by the Czech Republic and Germany to the north, Slovakia and Hungary to the east, Slovenia and Italy to the south, and Switzerland and Liechtenstein to the...
.
Geography
The city Hainburg is located next to the DanubeDanube
The Danube is a river in the Central Europe and the Europe's second longest river after the Volga. It is classified as an international waterway....
river and Bratislava
Bratislava
Bratislava is the capital of Slovakia and, with a population of about 431,000, also the country's largest city. Bratislava is in southwestern Slovakia on both banks of the Danube River. Bordering Austria and Hungary, it is the only national capital that borders two independent countries.Bratislava...
in Slovakia
Slovakia
The Slovak Republic is a landlocked state in Central Europe. It has a population of over five million and an area of about . Slovakia is bordered by the Czech Republic and Austria to the west, Poland to the north, Ukraine to the east and Hungary to the south...
and 50 km east of Vienna
Vienna
Vienna is the capital and largest city of the Republic of Austria and one of the nine states of Austria. Vienna is Austria's primary city, with a population of about 1.723 million , and is by far the largest city in Austria, as well as its cultural, economic, and political centre...
. It is part of the Industrial Quarter Industrieviertel
Industrieviertel
Industrieviertel , or Viertel unter dem Wienerwald, is the southeastern quarter of the four quarters of Lower Austria . It is bordered on the north by Vienna and to the west and south by the borders of Mostviertel and Styria respectively...
in Lower Austria.
45.87% of the land is forested, 54.13% is used for agriculture and urban areas. Hainburg an der Donau is the only district in the municipality.
History
- The first settlers in the area were the IllyriansIllyriansThe Illyrians were a group of tribes who inhabited part of the western Balkans in antiquity and the south-eastern coasts of the Italian peninsula...
and the CeltCeltThe Celts were a diverse group of tribal societies in Iron Age and Roman-era Europe who spoke Celtic languages.The earliest archaeological culture commonly accepted as Celtic, or rather Proto-Celtic, was the central European Hallstatt culture , named for the rich grave finds in Hallstatt, Austria....
ic people, who lived in Braunsburg. Today's city is next to ancient RomanRoman EmpireThe Roman Empire was the post-Republican period of the ancient Roman civilization, characterised by an autocratic form of government and large territorial holdings in Europe and around the Mediterranean....
settlement of CarnuntumCarnuntumCarnuntum was a Roman army camp on the Danube in the Noricum province and after the 1st century the capital of the Upper Pannonia province...
, the capital of the provinceRoman provinceIn Ancient Rome, a province was the basic, and, until the Tetrarchy , largest territorial and administrative unit of the empire's territorial possessions outside of Italy...
of PannoniaPannoniaPannonia was an ancient province of the Roman Empire bounded north and east by the Danube, coterminous westward with Noricum and upper Italy, and southward with Dalmatia and upper Moesia....
, where Marcus Aurelius once resided. - Emperor Henry III ordered a castle built here in 1050.
- The town had 2 gates, 15 towers, and a 2.5 km wall in the 13th century.
- The castle in 1108 belonged to the Babenbergers.
- In the second half of the 12th century, the ransom received from Richard the LionheartRichard I of EnglandRichard I was King of England from 6 July 1189 until his death. He also ruled as Duke of Normandy, Duke of Aquitaine, Duke of Gascony, Lord of Cyprus, Count of Anjou, Count of Maine, Count of Nantes, and Overlord of Brittany at various times during the same period...
built the castle along with the Viennese gate around 1220 to 1225. The lower part wasn't built until 1267 to 1268 by Ottokar of Bohemia. - On February 11, 1252, Ottokar IIOttokar II of BohemiaOttokar II , called The Iron and Golden King, was the King of Bohemia from 1253 until 1278. He was the Duke of Austria , Styria , Carinthia and Carniola also....
, later the King of Bohemia, married the last Babenberger Margaret of AustriaMargaret, Duchess of AustriaMargaret of Austria , was a Queen Consort of the Romans 1225–35, titular Duchess of Austria in 1252–60, and Queen consort of Bohemia 1253–60....
. - In Battle of Dürnkrut in 1278 Ottokar II lost the castle to the Habsburgs.
- In 1482 after a several months siegeSiege of HainburgThe Siege of Hainburg were two sieges of Hainburg conducted by Matthias I, King of Hungary, during the Austro-Hungarian War . The first siege was broken in July 1482 by the Imperial Army of the Holy Roman Empire...
the castle was occupied by Hungarian King Matthias Corvinus and his Black ArmyBlack Army of HungaryThe Black Army , "Black Legion" or "Regiment"—possibly named after their black armor panoply, see below) is, in historiography, the common name given to the military forces serving under the reign of King Matthias Corvinus of Hungary...
. - In 1629, the castle belonged to the city.
- On July 11, 1683, the Second Ottoman Campaign destroyed the city along with the castle.
- In 1709, Count Löwenburg rebuilt the castle.
- Here Joseph HaydnJoseph HaydnFranz Joseph Haydn , known as Joseph Haydn , was an Austrian composer, one of the most prolific and prominent composers of the Classical period. He is often called the "Father of the Symphony" and "Father of the String Quartet" because of his important contributions to these forms...
the composer came as a six-year-old child to learn the rudiments of music from his relative Josef Mathias Franck, and to sing as a choirboy from 1737–1740. There is a Haydn Fountain on the Hauptplatz in the town. - Hainburg gained a garrison in the 19th century.
- Since the end of the First World WarWorld War IWorld War I , which was predominantly called the World War or the Great War from its occurrence until 1939, and the First World War or World War I thereafter, was a major war centred in Europe that began on 28 July 1914 and lasted until 11 November 1918...
, Hainburg has been the easternmost town in Austria. - In 1984, protesters against plans to put a power station in the Hainburger Au of the DanubeDanubeThe Danube is a river in the Central Europe and the Europe's second longest river after the Volga. It is classified as an international waterway....
forced the government of Austria to withdraw. (see: Occupation of Hainburger Au).
- Today, it is part of the Donau-Auen Nationalpark.
Sites of interest
- Castle:
- Nationalpark Donau-Auen: floodplain forest
- Hexenberg:
- Braunsberg:
- Wienertor: (Viennese Gate), built in the 13th century, biggest door of the Middle Ages in Europe, that still exist, today there is the museum of the city
Medieval synagogue and ritual bath
- The Church: the 'Pfarrkirche,' a catholic church, was built in 1263 and rebuilt in the Baroque style in 1683
- Protestant Church: the 'Evangelische Kirche' was opened in April 2011, newly built by the Austrian architect's office Coop Himmelb(l)auCoop Himmelb(l)auCoop Himmelbau is a cooperative architectural design firm primarily located in Vienna, Austria and which now also maintains offices in Los Angeles, United States and Guadalajara, Mexico...