Irschen is a municipality in the district of Spittal an der Drau

Spittal an der Drau (district)

The Bezirk Spittal an der Drau is an administrative district in Carinthia, Austria.Area of the district is 2,763.99 km², population is 81,719 , and population density 30 persons per km². It is Austria's second largest district by area...

 in the 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...

n state of Carinthia

Carinthia (state)

Carinthia is the southernmost Austrian state or Land. Situated within the Eastern Alps it is chiefly noted for its mountains and lakes.The main language is German. Its regional dialects belong to the Southern Austro-Bavarian group...

. It consists of the Katastralgemeinden Irschen, Ritterdorf and Simmerlach. It is situated on the northern slope of the Upper Drava

Drava

Drava or Drave is a river in southern Central Europe, a tributary of the Danube. It sources in Toblach/Dobbiaco, Italy, and flows east through East Tirol and Carinthia in Austria, into Slovenia , and then southeast, passing through Croatia and forming most of the border between Croatia and...

 Valley, near the B 100 Drautal Straße highway

Bundesstraße

Bundesstraße , abbreviated B, is the denotation for German and Austrian national highways.-Germany:...

 and the Drautalbahn railway

ÖBB

The Austrian Federal Railways is the national railway system of Austria, and the administrators of Liechtenstein's railways...

 line.
A settlement area since the Early Iron Age

Iron Age

The Iron Age is the archaeological period generally occurring after the Bronze Age, marked by the prevalent use of iron. The early period of the age is characterized by the widespread use of iron or steel. The adoption of such material coincided with other changes in society, including differing...

 (Hallstatt Culture

Hallstatt culture

The Hallstatt culture was the predominant Central European culture from the 8th to 6th centuries BC , developing out of the Urnfield culture of the 12th century BC and followed in much of Central Europe by the La Tène culture.By the 6th century BC, the Hallstatt culture extended for some...

), Irschen may be identical to the Idunum polis

Polis

Polis , plural poleis , literally means city in Greek. It could also mean citizenship and body of citizens. In modern historiography "polis" is normally used to indicate the ancient Greek city-states, like Classical Athens and its contemporaries, so polis is often translated as "city-state."The...

 in the former Celtic kingdom of Noricum

Noricum

Noricum, in ancient geography, was a Celtic kingdom stretching over the area of today's Austria and a part of Slovenia. It became a province of the Roman Empire...

, as mentioned in Ptolemy's Geographia

Geographia (Ptolemy)

The Geography is Ptolemy's main work besides the Almagest...

. In Roman

Roman Empire

The 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....

 times a mansio

Mansio

In the Roman Empire, a mansio was an official stopping place on a Roman road, or via, maintained by the central government for the use of officials and those on official business whilst travelling.-Background:The roads which traversed the Ancient World, were later surveyed,...

 laid on the road leading over the Gailbergsattel

Gailbergsattel

Gailbergsattel is a high mountain pass in the Austrian Alps in the Bundesland of Kärnten .It connects Oberdrauburg in the north with Kötschach-Mauthen in the south. It leads to the Dolomites in the south.-See also:...

 mountain pass to Italia. Ursus I, Patriarch of Aquileia

Patriarch of Aquileia

The Patriarch of Aquileia was an office in the Roman Catholic Church. During the Middle Ages the Patriarchate of Aquileia was a temporal state in Northern Italy. The Patriarchate of Aquileia as a church office was suppressed in 1752....

 probably built a first church about 810

810

Year 810 was a common year starting on Tuesday of the Julian calendar.- Byzantine Empire :* October 1 – A man with a sword makes an attempt on emperor Nicephorus I's life...

 in the place then called Ursen, which was mentioned as Castrum Ursen in a 1086 deed. In medieval

Middle Ages

The Middle Ages is a periodization of European history from the 5th century to the 15th century. The Middle Ages follows the fall of the Western Roman Empire in 476 and precedes the Early Modern Era. It is the middle period of a three-period division of Western history: Classic, Medieval and Modern...

 times Irschen was a mining

Mining

Mining is the extraction of valuable minerals or other geological materials from the earth, from an ore body, vein or seam. The term also includes the removal of soil. Materials recovered by mining include base metals, precious metals, iron, uranium, coal, diamonds, limestone, oil shale, rock...

 area, especially for gold

Gold

Gold is a chemical element with the symbol Au and an atomic number of 79. Gold is a dense, soft, shiny, malleable and ductile metal. Pure gold has a bright yellow color and luster traditionally considered attractive, which it maintains without oxidizing in air or water. Chemically, gold is a...

.

It was recently revealed that English actress Billie Piper

Billie Piper

Billie Paul Piper is an English singer and actress.She began her career in the late 1990s as a pop singer and then switched to acting. She started in acting and dancing and was talent spotted at the Sylvia Young stage school by Smash Hits magazine who wanted a "face" for their magazine...

has a home in this region.