Burgau (Styria)

market community

Burgau

coat of arms

Austria map

Basic data

Country:

Austria

State :

Styria

Political District :

Hartberg-Fürstenfeld

License plate :

HF (from 1.7.2013; old: FF)

Surface:

19.99 km²

Coordinates :

47 ° 9 ' N , 16 ° 6' E Coordinates: 47 ° 8 '35 " N , 16 ° 5' 55" E

Height :

275 m above sea level A.

Residents :

1,041 (January 1, 2020)

Postal code :

8291

Area code :

03383

Community code :

6 22 06

NUTS region

AT224

Address of the
municipal administration:

Schloßweg 1
8291 Burgau

Website:

www.burgau.info [2]

politics

Mayor :

Gregor Löffler ( ÖVP )

Municipal Council : (2020)
(15 members)

9

6th

9 6th

A total of 15 seats

ÖVP : 9
SPÖ : 6

Location of Burgau in the Hartberg-Fürstenfeld district

Castle view from the inner courtyard

Source: Municipal data from Statistics Austria

The market town of Burgau from the southeast

Engraving by Georg Matthäus Vischer

Castle tower on the southwest side

Municipal office in the castle

Arcade courtyard in the castle

The altar of the pilgrimage church Maria Gnadenbrunn

Natural swimming pond and swimming pool

Marian column

Burgau is a market town with 1041 inhabitants (as of January 1, 2020) in the political district of Hartberg-Fürstenfeld in Styria . Burgau is known for the moated castle and the pilgrimage church Maria Gnadenbrunn.

geography

There are no other cadastral communities apart from Burgau .

Neighboring communities

	Neudau	Burgauberg-Neudauberg
Bad Waltersdorf		German Kaltenbrunn
	Bad Blumau

history

The castle, originally fortified with a wide moat , was a strategically important border fortress against the threat from the east and was additionally protected by the two rivers Lafnitz and Loben. Until the 12th century there are no sources that refer to the Burgau rule. The former moated castle "Burg in der Au" was first mentioned in a document in 1367 under the rule of the Lords of Puchheim (noble family) , who owned Burgau as a princely fiefdom.

In 1429 the Burgau market and festivals went to the lords of Neitperg ( Neuberg Castle ) as a princely fief . Hans von Neitperg was the last of his name and tribe, after whose death the fiefdom was taken over by the lords of Polheim. The Polheimers managed their goods from Seggauberg (near Leibnitz ). During this time, Burgau was exposed to the extermination trains of Andreas Baumkircher's mercenaries , who devastated Eastern Styria and thus Burgau by 1475 after the lost battle of Fürstenfeld and the execution of their leader in 1471 . With the support of Weikhard von Polheim , the population started to rebuild the place and the church in which the epitaph Weikhards is located. Five years after Weikhard's death in 1489, his son Seifried received from Friedrich III for himself and his brother, who were both resident in Linz . the rule of Burgau as a fiefdom. Despite the negotiations with Hungary , which saved her from further incursions, Seifried von Polheim got into great financial difficulties and, due to insolvency, had to pledge the castle for 200 guilders in November 1498 . In 1500, because of his bravery against the Turks , Erhard von Polheim was given the rule of Burgau as a free property and immediately began to expand the fortifications of the castle. The Turks were successfully repulsed in 1529 and 1532. However, numerous Burgau residents were kidnapped and killed by the Turks, who also besieged Vienna for the first time that year.

From 1530, Weikhart von Polheim administered the rule for his father Erhard, and from 1538 he succeeded him in ownership. Also plagued by financial worries, he initiated the renovation of the castle and had the keep removed, the defensive walls reinforced that now connected the outer bailey with the residential palace, two new defensive towers erected on the southern front of the outer bailey and a moat built. The gatehouse was now closed by a drawbridge , and a wooden bridge spanned the moat. At that time the defense structure received its final appearance. Burgau Castle was thus expanded into a large moated castle . After Weikhard von Polheim's death in 1550, his brother Hans managed the castle for his son Wigolens.

In 1559 and 1564 the indebted Burgau rulership had to be pledged, which in the following year fell as heir to Hans von Zelking , who sold it to Mathias von Trauttmannsdorff , whose family put the population under pressure through high levies on robots ( compulsory labor ). A request by the citizens of Burgau for robot liberation from 1675 or 1687 was rejected by the inner Austrian government. An inscription stone with the Trauttmannsdorff coat of arms above the entrance portal reminds of this period of ownership: “Maximilian Graf von Trautmannsdorf and Weinsberg, Knight of the Golden Fleece , Rom. Quays. Majesty Ferdinand III. secret councilor, chamberlain and chief steward ”.

In 1704 the Kurucs , rebellious opponents of the Habsburg claims to rule, invaded this area and large parts of Eastern Styria were devastated under the rulers. The fact that Burgau was largely spared from these attacks, miraculously, can only be attributed to the clever negotiating tactics of the Burgau mayor, who offered the rebels goods and coins as ransom . Max Gundakher Graf von Trauttmannsdorff, who had already taken over part of the property from his father in 1749, finally sold it in 1753 to Adam Graf Batthyány , who came from the Hungarian nobility and whose family is one of the most important owners of the Burgau estate.

His successor, Count Carl Batthyány, founded the first cotton spinning mill of the Austro-Hungarian monarchy in Markt Burgau in 1789 , which worked on a purely mechanical basis according to the English model, and thus contributed to the creation of jobs for the local population. Later even a workers' settlement, the so-called “Untere Markt”, was created for the workers of the spinning mill. He had two of the newly developed cotton stretching machines and a spinning machine smuggled out of England . Difficulties in procuring raw materials, increasing competition from the Vienna area and the French Wars led to the factory being temporarily closed in 1808.

It was not until 1831, when the Viennese wholesaler Georg Borckenstein took over and modernized the business, that work could be restarted four years later. Burgau was not only home to the oldest textile factory of the Danube Monarchy , other technical achievements can also be demonstrated here at an early stage. Count Carl Batthyány also procured a modern threshing machine from England ; as early as 1884 Burgau was connected to the railway network by the Bierbaum – Neudau local railway and in 1909 an electricity works was built here by the Austro-Hungarian captain Johann Svetits .

The last owner of Burgau Castle, Count Lajos Batthyány , successor to Count Carl Batthyány, was arrested as Prime Minister and leader of the March Revolution in Hungary and executed in October 1849. In October 1999, on the 150th anniversary of his death, a Batthyány bust and a memorial plaque were placed in the castle courtyard in memory of him .

The castle has been owned by the market town of Burgau since 1871 . The primary school was housed in the castle until 1968 . In 1990 Ryke Geerd Hamer set up a center for new medicine there, which was officially closed in 1995.

In recent years the castle, the inner courtyard and the outer bailey with the round tower have been restored . The round tower houses the municipal office and a castle café, and there are apartments in the outer bailey (former servants' wing). The basement of the main castle has a beautiful brick vault and is used for events. The ballroom on the second floor of the palace and the inner courtyard with the arched vaults are used for cultural events. (Exhibitions, concerts, theater performances, weddings, congresses ...)

In 1998 the moat was rebuilt on the west side of the castle.

Population development

Culture and sights

Burgau moated castle

In addition, in September 1999 the inner courtyard of the palace was given the 4th table in a series of five stone tables, the so-called utopian table.

Pilgrimage Church of Maria Gnadenbrunn

The local church of Maria Gnadenbrunn zu Burgau rises in an open position on the western edge of the village on a slight hill.

The first building from the 14th century was destroyed by the Hungarians in 1418. In 1624 and 1775 the rebuilt church was badly damaged by fire or a storm. A comprehensive restoration took place in 1952. The organ was renovated and thoroughly cleaned in September 2010.

The choir chapel and the statue of Our Lady with the baby Jesus on the high altar date from the 15th century. The bell of the church is also very old - it dates from 1586. The interior of the church essentially comes from the late baroque era .

In the church there is an epitaph belonging to the lord of the castle Weikhart von Polheim, one of the owners of the castle.

A pilgrimage takes place in the parish church of Burgau every 13th day of the month from April to October. On June 13, 2010, the mass for the 200th pilgrimage was celebrated with Auxiliary Bishop Franz Lackner .

On September 1, 2012, the previous pastor, Spiritual Counselor Josef Karl Fleck, retired after 33 years of service in Burgau. Since then, the Burgau parish is no longer a separate parish, but a member of the Burgau-Neudau-Wörth parish association . The responsible pastor of the parish association was Mag. Mariusz Malek until August 31, 2013. On September 1, 2013 the parish association was taken over by Konrad Sterninger, who, however, resigned from his office on October 8, 2013. Since September 1, 2014, Mag. Adrian Czobot has been acting as provisional.

Main square with Marian column

At the main square in Burgau there is an approximately eleven meter high Marian column on a square base. It was built in 1750 and at the top there is a gilded figure of Mary from the Veit Königer workshop, which looks to the east; as a reminder from which direction the plague came into the place. However, an engraving by the topographer Georg Matthäus Vischer from Markt Burgau suggests that a column was already on the main square around 1670.

The year 1778 is also noted on the marble plaque at the foot of the column, when a violent storm devastated the place. During this storm, u. a. the Marian column was overturned and the northern tower of the castle was also destroyed. Since this storm, St. Donatus has been the patron saint of Burgau and in his honor a procession is held every year on the second Sunday in July, followed by a parish festival.

When the townscape of Burgau was renewed, a new stone fountain was laid out on the main square and a round bench was set up around the old linden tree (nature reserve).

Chartake

On the occasion of the exhibition Labonca-Lafnitz - Living on one of the oldest borders in Europe in 1995, a border guards house, the Tschartake , was built directly on the Lafnitz .

This border guards house is on the so-called "Kuruzzenwanderweg". This hiking trail is also a nature trail that shows information boards about the flora and fauna in the hill country, the importance of the hedges, the ecology of the meadow landscape, the importance of the orchards and the changes in the landscape due to cultivation.

In August 2012 the Tschartake and the bridge over the Lafnitz were completely renewed as part of the necessary renovation.

Chapels and martyrs

Many chapels and martyrs can be found on cycling and hiking trails in Burgau.

A few examples of this are:

the Red Cross
the Mühlhausen chapel
the Holy Trinity Chapel
the gallows cross
the black cross
the Mariazeller Cross

politics

mayor

Gregor Löffler (ÖVP) was re-elected mayor at the constituent meeting of the municipal council on April 23, 2015 .

The municipality board also includes the deputy mayor Wolfgang Florian (ÖVP) and the municipal treasurer Harald Gmoser (SPÖ).

Head of office is Gudrun Gurdet-Maurer.

Municipal council

The municipal council consists of 15 members. The distribution of mandates after the 2015 municipal council election is:

10 ÖVP and
05 SPÖ .

The last municipal council elections brought the following results:

Political party	2015			2010			2005			2000
Political party	Sti.	%	M.	Sti.	%	M.	Sti.	%	M.	Sti.	%	M.
ÖVP	454	64	10	482	68	10	386	57	9	415	61	9
SPÖ	258	36	05	226	32	05	294	43	6th	217	32	5
FPÖ	not running			not running			not running			050	07th	1
Eligible voters	920			858			829			800
voter turnout	80%			84%			85%			88%