Feldkirch

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Borough
Feldkirch
coat of arms Austria map
Feldkirch coat of arms
Feldkirch (Austria)
Feldkirch
Basic data
Country: Austria
State : Vorarlberg
Political District : Feldkirch
License plate : FK
Surface: 34.33 km²
Coordinates : 47 ° 14 '  N , 9 ° 36'  E Coordinates: 47 ° 14 '17 "  N , 9 ° 35' 54"  E
Height : 458  m above sea level A.
Residents : 34.210 (January 1, 2020)
Postal code : 6800
Area code : 05522
Community code : 8 04 04
Address of the
municipal administration:
Schmiedgasse 1–3
6800 Feldkirch
Website: www.feldkirch.at
politics
Mayor : Wolfgang Matt ( ÖVP )
Local council : ( 2015 )
(36 members)
18th
7th
6th
2
2
1
18th 7th 6th 
A total of 36 seats
Location of Feldkirch in the Feldkirch district
Altach Düns Dünserberg Feldkirch Frastanz Fraxern Göfis Götzis Klaus Koblach Laterns Mäder Meiningen Rankweil Röns Röthis Satteins Schlins Schnifis Sulz Übersaxen Viktorsberg Weiler Zwischenwasser VorarlbergLocation of the municipality of Feldkirch in the Feldkirch district (clickable map)
About this picture
Template: Infobox municipality in Austria / maintenance / site plan image map
Feldkirch, view from the Stadtschrofen
Feldkirch, view from the Stadtschrofen
Source: Municipal data from Statistics Austria

Measured in terms of population, Feldkirch is the second largest city in the Austrian state of Vorarlberg with 34,210 inhabitants (as of January 1, 2020) and is also the seat of the district administration of the administrative district of the same name . Feldkirch is the westernmost municipality in Austria and its 13th most populous city.

Feldkirch is the seat of numerous institutions, which is why it is also referred to as the "secret state capital". These include the Feldkirch Regional Court , the Vorarlberg Chamber of Commerce , the Vorarlberg Chamber of Labor, the largest regional hospital in Vorarlberg ( Feldkirch Regional Hospital ), the Vorarlberg State Conservatory , a branch of the Federal Finance Court and the State Office for Surveying and Geoinformation (LVG). Feldkirch has been a diocesan town and bishopric since 1968 and has also been a university town since the Vorarlberg University of Education was founded in 2007.

geography

The city is located at the exit of the Ill valley on the level of the Alpine Rhine and borders on Switzerland and Liechtenstein .

City structure

Since “Groß-Feldkirch” was founded, the city has consisted of seven “parliamentary groups” - these denote a district and not an association of members of parliament - each of which has a local chief . These are appointed by the city council in agreement with the mayor. Today, the parliamentary groups and their local councils are usually of little importance in political reality.

The seven parliamentary groups are (as of December 31, 2014):

district KG number Area in m 2 Residents households Mayor Political party
Feldkirch city center 92105 01,309,629 3,277 1,659 Dieter Preschle ÖVP
Levis 92102 02,514,153 2,525 1,185 Dieter Preschle ÖVP
Altenstadt 92102 03,375,570 5,158 2,237 Josef Mähr ÖVP
Gisingen 92102 08.002.650 8,809 3,707 Peter Stieger ÖVP
Nofels 92116 10,702,079 3,822 1,531 Doris Wolf ÖVP
Tosters 92125 04,052,933 5,665 2,557 Manfred Himmer ÖVP
Tisis 92124 04,397,119 5,279 2,318 Gabriele Graf ÖVP

Neighboring communities

The neighboring municipalities are in the north of Meiningen , in the northeast Rankweil , in the southeast Göfis , south Frastanz , ,,

climate

Average monthly temperatures and rainfall for Feldkirch
Jan Feb Mar Apr May Jun Jul Aug Sep Oct Nov Dec
Max. Temperature ( ° C ) 3.4 5.4 10.6 15.1 19.9 22.5 24.7 23.9 19.6 15.0 8.2 4.2 O 14.4
Min. Temperature (° C) -3.3 -2.6 1.2 4.6 9.1 12.2 14.2 13.8 10.2 6.3 1.2 -1.9 O 5.5
Temperature (° C) 0.0 1.0 5.3 9.4 14.1 17.0 19.0 18.2 14.1 9.8 4.4 1.2 O 9.5
Precipitation ( mm ) 72 68 89 89 124 155 182 182 131 86 92 89 Σ 1,359
Humidity ( % ) 74.3 66.7 57.3 53.7 55.3 57.1 58.2 60.5 63.4 66.9 73.5 76.9 O 63.6
T
e
m
p
e
r
a
t
u
r
3.4
-3.3
5.4
-2.6
10.6
1.2
15.1
4.6
19.9
9.1
22.5
12.2
24.7
14.2
23.9
13.8
19.6
10.2
15.0
6.3
8.2
1.2
4.2
-1.9
Jan Feb Mar Apr May Jun Jul Aug Sep Oct Nov Dec
N
i
e
d
e
r
s
c
h
l
a
g
72
68
89
89
124
155
182
182
131
86
92
89
  Jan Feb Mar Apr May Jun Jul Aug Sep Oct Nov Dec

history

Feldkirch around 1650, copper engraving by Matthäus Merian the Elder. Ä.
Marktgasse, Feldkirch
Neustadt, Feldkirch

For the Fritzens Sanzeno culture see cult place in the Grütze hallway .

Ancient and Middle Ages

A few kilometers north of today's urban area (in today's Rankweil ) there was already a settlement with an ecclesia sancti Petri ad Campos , i.e. a church of St. Peter in the field, in late Roman times . In the 9th century, another (branch) church was built in the field, the St. Petronilla Church (today the Chapel of St. Petronilla and Martin). The name Feldkirichun in the Rätisches Reichsurbar - a property register from 842 AD - was derived from one of these churches in the field and originally referred to the settlement of today's Altenstadt . The name Feldkirch ( Veldkiricha, Veldkirchia and others spellings) was then taken over for the southern, near the Ill , newly developed and rapidly growing settlement at the foot of the Schattenburg built under Count Hugo I of Montfort and the original Feldkirch, although still a village, gradually Old Stat , later Old city called.

In 1218 the new Feldkirch was first mentioned as a town in a document. The last count of the Feldkirch line of the Montforters , Rudolf V († 1390), was first canon and provost in Chur for many years and was only appointed to the government after a late, childless marriage. In 1375 he sold the town and rule of Feldkirch to Duke Leopold III. von Habsburg , whose bailiffs finally moved into Feldkirch in 1379.

At the beginning of the 14th century, thirty to forty Jews lived in Feldkirch, but they were burned in 1349 because they were held responsible for the outbreak of the plague .

In connection with the sale, the Feldkirch citizens knew how to fight for freedom rights, which found expression in the great freedom letter of 1376 and which they knew how to use economically.

Trade with Italy and the Holy Roman Empire flourished and brought prosperity to the city. The artisans achieved such importance that in 1405 they dared to revolt against the patricians . The city's wealth was an important prerequisite for its cultural development. They had enough money to found a Latin school , which can be verified for the first time in 1399.

As a result, the Habsburgs administered their dominions in what is now Vorarlberg, alternately from Tyrol and Upper Austria ( Freiburg im Breisgau ). In the late Middle Ages , in the time of the Appenzell Wars (1405–1429) between the prince abbey of St. Gallen, allied with Habsburg, and the subordinate Appenzell, the development of the state territories, which was completed in modern times, began. Significant for this are different alliances between the cities and the estates of the Feldkirch rulership with the courtiers at Altstätten , Berneck and Marbach , with the city of St. Gallen and with the country people on the Eschnerberg . In 1405, when the city of Feldkirch was admitted, the actual establishment of the Confederation ob dem See , the most important alliance of this time in this region, was organized according to the federal model . The federal government expanded rapidly with the accession of Bludenz , Rankweil , Sax , Gaster , Toggenburg and others. Daring military ventures and uprisings against the rule of the Habsburgs (Tyrol, Allgäu , Thurgau ) were successful in the short term and led to the destruction of numerous aristocratic castles. On January 13, 1408, however, the federation was subject to the Habsburg knight army near Bregenz .

Modern times

In the Second Coalition War, a battle took place near Feldkirch in 1799 . In 1649 the Jesuit order founded a college in Feldkirch , from which the elite gymnasium Stella Matutina developed from 1856 onwards, which was protected by the imperial family and which - with interruptions - existed until 1979 and gained international religious, scientific and educational influence through the Feldkirch.

20th century

In 1925, the urban area expanded considerably through the incorporation of Levis , Altenstadt , Gisingen , Nofels , Tosters and Tisis .

On October 1, 1943, Feldkirch was the target of an Allied air raid. A USAAF bomber association , which was supposed to attack a Messerschmitt plant near Augsburg , but had not found its target due to bad weather, used Feldkirch as a substitute target instead. Among other things, a hospital in the Tisis district was hit, causing over 100 deaths. Apart from the French troops marching in at the end of the war, the bombing raid on Feldkirch was the only major fighting in the Vorarlberg area during the Second World War .

The Kolping family Feldkirch with the Kolping House on Jahnplatz is the oldest still existing workers' association in Vorarlberg.

Population development

Population development in the districts of Feldkirch (as of December 31, 2003)

The population has increased sharply in recent decades, as both the birth balance and the migration balance are positive. In the ten years from 2001 to 2011, 1,009 more people immigrated than emigrated.

Economy and Infrastructure

traffic

Feldkirch has had a city ​​bus system with eight lines since 1993 , which run in all parts of the city and in Frastanz (district of Fellengatter). On weekends and before public holidays, four night lines of the Upper Rhine Valley bus connect the parts of Feldkirch as well as Rankweil , Sulz , Röthis , Weiler , Klaus , Zwischenwasser , Übersaxen and Frastanz until five in the morning. Every day there is also the "YOYO" collective call taxi , which serves the entire area of ​​the Upper Rhine Valley Landbus, until three o'clock . In addition, lines 56 , 59 , 60 , 67 , 68 , 70 and 71 of the Landbus Oberes Rheintal, line 73 of the Landbus Walgau and lines 11 , 13 , 14 and 36E of the Liechtenstein bus station in Feldkirch. (Status: January 2010)

The Feldkirch train station , stop at which all passenger trains, is situated on the railway route Lindau-Bludenz which in Bludenz to the Arlberg railway connects Innsbruck. The Feldkirch Amberg stop is located further north on this route . Feldkirch is also an important node for the connection to Zurich due to the railway line in the direction of Buchs SG , which leads via Schaan (Liechtenstein) . (Other stops in the municipality of Feldkirch are: Altenstadt, Gisingen, Tisis.) Car trains run daily on the Feldkirch-Vienna, Feldkirch- Villach and Feldkirch- Graz routes . The station has a vehicle loading point for motorail trains .

Feldkirch is connected to the Rheintal / Walgau Autobahn (A14) via the Feldkirch-Nord (36) and Feldkirch-Frastanz connections , which runs south from Bludenz as the S16 through the Arlberg road tunnel to Tyrol .

Like most cities, Feldkirch suffers from the pressure of high traffic volumes. Starting in 2007, numerous options to relieve Feldkirch were sought in an extensive, transparent planning process with the participation of the population. An overall concept consisting of road construction projects (four tunnel arms to Tisis, Frastanz, Tosters, Feldkirch old town lead into a ring tunnel) and extensive accompanying measures v. a. in the area of ​​public transport have meanwhile been adopted by the Feldkirch city council. The project is now being further developed as the "Feldkirch city tunnel". The official procedures required for the construction have been initiated.

The Zentralalpenweg , an Austrian long-distance hiking trail , ends in Feldkirch and covers a distance of 1200 km from Hainburg an der Donau .

Established businesses

Feldkirch's hydropower plant

In Feldkirch there used to be the foundries Stutzenberger , Felix and Grassmayr , all of them important bell foundries.

As of May 15, 2001, 1,464 companies - eight of them larger companies with more than 200 employees each - employed 13,146 people in Feldkirch.

  • Bachmann Electronic
  • Vorarlberg milk
  • Lingenhöle technology
  • JCL Logistics GmbH
  • Stadtwerke Feldkirch
  • KSW Elektro- und Industrieanlagenbau GmbH
  • Building cleaning farmer
  • Feldkirch State Hospital

Agriculture

Wine is grown in Feldkirch, on the one hand there are the vineyards on the Ardetzenberg , and on the opposite side, wine is grown below the Schattenburg.

safety

State hospital

Feldkirch is the seat of the district police command for the Feldkirch district, the location of the Feldkirch police station and the Vorarlberg education center of the security academy . In Feldkirch there is also a branch of the Einsatzkommando Cobra , an anti-terrorist unit. The city of Feldkirch employs its own community guards with 23 city ​​policemen , whose guard room is located in the town hall. In addition, three parking monitoring bodies are in action for the city.

Employee and employer representatives

Both the Vorarlberg Chamber of Labor and the Vorarlberg Chamber of Commerce have their headquarters in Feldkirch. The Austrian Federation of Trade Unions is represented with a branch.

energy

Feldkirch is one of the 24 municipalities in Austria (as of 2019) that received the highest award in the e5 municipal energy project . The e5 community project aims to promote the implementation of a modern energy and climate policy at community level.

Regional court

Prison with tax and customs coordination in the background

The Feldkirch regional court is the only regional court in Vorarlberg; Vorarlberg is the only Austrian federal state whose capital does not have a regional court. This is due to the fact that the court was built in Feldkirch before Vorarlberg became an independent federal state and Bregenz its capital. The Feldkirch Regional Court is the court of appeal for the district courts in Bezau, Bludenz, Bregenz, Dornbirn and Feldkirch. The court of appeal for decisions by the Feldkirch Regional Court is the Innsbruck Higher Regional Court .

The building of the regional court was built between 1903 and 1905 by the Art Nouveau architect Ernst Dittrich , who came from Vienna as a ministerial official. In addition to the generally high standard of this architecture, the jury court room is of particular quality.

Tax and customs coordination for Vorarlberg

The tax and customs coordination for Vorarlberg

Tax and Customs Coordination is a federal tax authority based in Feldkirch. Your area of ​​responsibility extends to the entire country. The building is opposite the regional court and was designed by the same architect. While Ernst Dittrich seemed more strongly influenced by Viennese Art Nouveau at the beginning of his construction activity, the tax and customs coordination is more committed to Darmstadt Art Nouveau. There is a special relationship with Joseph Maria Olbrich , as both come from Vienna. Ernst Dittrich was able to plan a unique bridgehead situation with the regional court and the tax and customs coordination.

State Conservatory

State Conservatory with gatehouse

The state conservatory is located in the so-called anniversary building on the left side of the Ill. At first it was the seat of the Jesuit Stella Matutina private grammar school . The imposing building was erected in 1900/01 by the order who had come to Feldkirch in 1649. In 1938 the grammar school was closed by the Nazi regime and used as a Reich Finance School - later as a military hospital . The college was reopened in 1946 and existed until 1979. Since 1977 the building has housed the Vorarlberg State Conservatory, where more than 400 students study music today.

schools

  • Bundesgymnasium and Bundesrealgymnasium Feldkirch (BGF; founded 1649)
  • Federal Commercial Academy and Federal Commercial School Feldkirch
  • Federal Upper Level Realgymnasium and Federal Realgymnasium Schillerstraße (GYS)
  • Educational Institute for Kindergarten Pedagogy, Institute St. Josef
  • Higher educational institute and technical school for economic professions, Institute St. Josef
  • Feldkirch city music school
  • Vorarlberg State Conservatory
  • University of Education Vorarlberg (founded 2007)
  • Practice school at the Vorarlberg University of Education
  • School of Health and Nursing
  • New middle school, St. Josef Institute
  • New middle school Gisingen-Oberau
  • Levi's New Middle School
  • Feldkirch Educational Support Center
  • Feldkirch Polytechnic School
  • Feldkirch State Vocational School
  • Security Academy - training center for the Feldkirch security executive
  • Elementary school Nofels, Levis, Tisis, Tosters, Altenstadt, Gisingen, Feldkirch (city)

Feldkirch diocese

The area of ​​the later city of Feldkirch belonged since the early Middle Ages together with the south of today's Vorarlberg to the diocese of Chur , the north of Vorarlberg to the diocese of Constance and the northeast to the diocese of Augsburg . Under Emperor Joseph II (1780–1790) attempts were unsuccessfully to eliminate the influence of these dioceses in Vienna . In 1816 the Diocese of Chur and in 1819 the Diocese of Konstanz had to cede their shares in Vorarlberg to the Diocese of Brixen in what is now South Tyrol. A vicariate general was established in the city of Feldkirch; the vicars general were also auxiliary bishops .

When Vorarlberg was separated from the Diocese of Innsbruck in 1968 , the Diocese of Feldkirch came into being, and Feldkirch became a diocesan town and bishopric. The Gothic parish church of St. Nikolaus was elevated to a cathedral and is now called Dompfarrkirche Feldkirch .

Culture and sights

View from the Schattenburg over the historic old town

Buildings

Feldkirch city center

Feldkirch has one of the best preserved medieval townscapes in Vorarlberg. The city was built around 1200 at the same time as the Schattenburg and has a geometric grid system. Since the city wall was rebuilt around 1500, the city has remained unchanged over the centuries.

The Feldkirch ensemble has been included in the Austrian list of cultural goods (cultural goods protected under the Hague Convention) since 2015 . The city is also a member of the Small Historic Cities Association .

City fortifications

Chur Gate
Postage stamp "Churertor Feldkirch" from the series "Österreichische Baudenkmäler"

The streets of the Schlossgraben, Hirschgraben and St. Leonhardsplatz mark the former course of the city ​​wall that initially surrounded the Neustadt area in the 13th century . The wall was largely rebuilt around 1500 and has been torn down in many places since 1826.

As long as Feldkirch was surrounded by a city wall and a moat, you could only get into the city through one of the four gates. These city gates were called Bregenzer or Nikolaustor , Bludenzer or Schultor , Mühle or Sautor and Churer or Salztor . The two last-mentioned gates still stand today, the other two were demolished at the beginning of the 19th century along with the city wall.

  • The Churer Tor was built as part of the old city wall in 1491 and is located at the exit of Montfortgasse to Hirschgraben. The name is derived from the Churerstraße that begins here. Because the salt barn, in which salt was stored at the time, stood next to this gate until the turn of the last century, it is also called the “salt gate”. The building has a coat of arms stone with Feldkirch coat of arms in a scrollwork cartouche (1591) on the wall.
  • The eight-storey round cat tower (also known as the "thick tower") is located at the Hirschgraben. It was built from 1491 to 1507 as part of the fortification of the city against the Swiss under the government of the Roman-German king and later emperor Maximilian I. In the 17th century the bell room for the large church bell (the largest in Vorarlberg) was built. The mighty, originally six-storey round tower was decorated with a picture of the Virgin Mary, which was restored by Florus Scheel in the 19th century. The name comes from cats (weapons) that were housed in the defense tower.
  • Powder Tower: The tower from 1460 stands on the south corner of the city wall, near the Mühletor
  • Water tower: This is located in the western corner of the city, just like the one
  • Theft

Castles and palaces

Shadow castle
Liechtenstein Palace
  • Schattenburg : The Schattenburg was the ancestral seat of the Counts of Montfort until 1390. The first construction phase began around 1230 under Hugo I von Montfort, the founder of the city. Under Count Friedrich von Toggenburg (1416–1436) and under Vogt Hans von Königsegg, extensions and redesigns of the Schattenburg were carried out in the 15th century. After the bailiff's office moved out, the castle was put up for auction several times, and in 1813 it was even supposed to be demolished. The Schattenburg has been owned by the city of Feldkirch since 1825, which it then acquired for 833 guilders. The Schattenburg now served as a barracks and later as a poor quarter. The castle owes its rescue and revitalization to the Museum and Heritage Protection Association for Feldkirch and the surrounding area, founded in 1912 . The castle houses a chateau restaurant on the ground floor, while a local museum is operated on the upper floors, which attracts around 25,000 guests annually.
  • Tosters ruin
  • Palais Liechtenstein : In its current form, the house at Schlossergasse No. 8 was built in the baroque style after the city fire in 1697 as an official building for Prince Johann Adam Andreas von Liechtenstein . For some time the house was owned by Christian Getzner (1782–1848). In 1848 it came into the possession of the Tschavoll family , from whose heirs the town acquired it in 1967. Today the building is used as a city ​​archive and library.

Churches, monasteries, chapels and other places of worship

St. Nicholas Cathedral
Dompfarrkirche St. Nikolaus
  • The Dompfarrkirche St. Nikolaus was first mentioned in 1287. The originally Romanesque building was badly damaged by city fires (1348, 1398, 1460). The late Gothic new building was completed in 1478. The cathedral is the most important Gothic church in Vorarlberg. Their importance can be seen above all in the interior. Among other works of art, you can see a wrought-iron Gothic pulpit , which arose from an original sacrament house .
  • The Frauenkirche (own Church of the Annunciation and Saints Sebastian and Antonius ) is located southeast of the Churer Tor. It originally dates from 1473, but was largely redesigned from 1672 to 1678; Serbian Orthodox parish church since 1990 and equipped with iconostasis
  • Johanniterkirche : The church of St. John the Baptist in Marktgasse was built in 1218 under Hugo Count Montfort as a religious order church of the Johanniter . From 1665 it belonged to the Ottobeuren monastery . After secularization , it served as the grammar school church from 1809 to 1969. On the gable end, a figure of a knight, the "Bläsi", strikes a bell every hour to indicate the time.
  • The cemetery church of St. Peter and Paul , built in 1551, is located in the middle of the cemetery established in 1549 in the north of the city. There is also a coat of arms tombstone by Franz Ferdinand Ramschwag (1716).
  • The Feldkirch Capuchin Monastery was founded in 1602. In 1605 the construction of the monastery in the northeast of the city outside the former city walls was completed and the Church of the Sacrifice of Mary was consecrated. The town patron St. Fidelis von Sigmaringen is particularly venerated here  , who was the monastery ruler here in 1621 and whose head is kept in the monastery.
  • Holy Cross Chapel in the "im Kehr" district.
  • St. Margaretha Chapel on Margarethenkapf
  • The St. Josef Institute is a monastery of the Sisters of the Cross and a school.
  • Old Protestant parish church near the train station. ( H. B. )
  • The Reformed Pauluskirche (H. B.) in which the Romanian Orthodox parish and the Old Catholics also celebrate services.
  • A Buddhist monastery has been in the Letzehof (southwest of the city center) since 1982.
  • There are several free church, evangelical and New Apostolic communities with their own worship facilities in Feldkirch.
  • The Romanian Orthodox parish celebrates its services in the Evangelical Pauluskirche.

In Levis:

  • Parish Church of St. Magdalena
  • Parish Vicariate Church of Mary Queen of Peace and Cemetery
  • In Levis there is a mosque of the Islamic Federation ( Millî Görüş ) originally located in Tisis .

In Altenstadt:

  • The parish church of Saints Pankratius and Zeno was built before 1425, received a tower in 1825/26 and was enlarged in 1884/86.
  • The Dominican convent has been inhabited and maintained by sisters of the Dominican Order since 1551 . The current monastery building originally dates from 1634, but was later expanded. The Dominican Church of the Annunciation from 1695 replaced an earlier church from 1640/42.
  • Petronilla Chapel

In Gisingen:

  • The parish church of St. Sebastian was built in 1864-65 in place of a plague chapel built in 1634 and enlarged in 1922 due to the sharp increase in the population.
  • There is a Bosniak mosque in the Hämmerlesiedlung.

In Nofels:

  • The old parish church of Our Lady of the Visitation was built in 1726-28, in 1865 the tower was raised. 1958–1962 a new building was added to the church.
  • Chapel hll. Sebastian and Fridolin in Bangs.
  • Chapel hll. Martin and Magnus in Oberfresch.
  • There is a small mosque in Nofels.

In Tisis:

In Tosters:

Villas and other residential buildings

Villa Claudia

The Feldkirch bourgeoisie built a number of representative residential buildings in the 19th century, most of which are still privately owned today. Most of the villas were built on Reichsstrasse, especially in the area between the Bärenkreuzung and the train station.

  • Villa Getzner: The sandstone villa with coach house and servants' house was built in 1882 according to the plans of the Swiss architect Hilarius Knobel . The building is a historical monument.
  • Villa Feldegg: This villa was built in 1861, the architect is unknown. It is characterized by a raised central projection with five window axes and a balcony with three arcades. It is a rare example of how the largely anonymous building culture of the Biedermeier period, despite its historicizing accessories, achieved the quality of early Art Nouveau buildings .
  • Villa Claudia: The red Art Nouveau building with onion domes is now publicly owned and houses the Feldkirch registry office . It is also a regular venue for exhibitions.
  • Housing complex of the municipality of Feldkirch (1925–1926): After the destruction of the city hall's spiers, this flat, rhythmic gable front of the housing complex (Count Hugo Wehrgang 1–5) is the last sign of Lois Welzenbacher's urban development work .

Cultural life and events

The city of Feldkirch has been awarding the culture prize since 1984 .

The Montforthaus culture and congress center was reopened at the beginning of 2015.

James Joyce and Feldkirch

Official street sign:
"James Joyce Passage"
Notice board
"James Joyce Passage"
James Joyce quote bar in the Feldkirch station concourse

Since Bloomsday 1994, a James Joyce quote can be read in the station concourse of Feldkirch, emphasizing the Irish writer's special connection with Feldkirch. Thanks to influential friends, James Joyce, who was regarded as an " enemy alien " due to the World War II , was able to leave Austria with his partner Nora Barnacle and their two children , while his brother Stanislaus Joyce was arrested in Trieste as an "enemy alien" and for the duration of the World War remained imprisoned. At the border control in Feldkirch, Joyce was arrested as well, which is why, according to his words, at the train station in Feldkirch, the fate of his novel Ulysses was decided. In the summer of 1932, his friendship with the publisher couple Maria and Eugene Jolas Joyce returned to Montfortstadt, where he stayed at the Hotel Löwen for three weeks and worked on Finnegans Wake .

Feldkirch's dual connection with the life and work of James Joyce was long unknown to the general public. At the suggestion of the literary scholar Andreas Weigel , who informed the Vorarlberg finance and cultural councilor Guntram Lins in 1992 about this special literary-historical position of the Montfortstadt, the Feldkirch cultural area installed memorial plaques in 1994 in the station hall and at the Hotel Löwen , and with the financial support of the regional cultural department together with the Zurich company James Joyce Foundation hosted a multi-day Joyce Symposium. At the end of 2001, the ÖBB replaced the memorial plaque installed by the Feldkirch cultural district on Bloomsday 1994 above the ticket counters with a particularly clear and eye-catching presentation of the literary-historical Joyce quotation, with which the ÖBB contributed significantly to the popularization and dissemination of the facts that had been hidden for decades. On June 16, 2004, after ten years of discussion, on the occasion of the celebration of the 100th Bloomsday , the city of Feldkirch officially renamed the Löwen-Passage the James Joyce Passage . On this occasion, the city of Feldkirch put up a notice board with biographical background information.

Theater am Saumarkt

The Saumarkt sees itself as an important regional cultural mediator who repeatedly picks up on current cultural trends, presents them on site and puts them up for discussion. In addition, premieres and in-house productions are regularly offered in cooperation with cultural workers in the state.

Pool bar festival

Every summer in July and August, the pool bar festival offers concerts, cinema, short films, cabaret, poetry slam, pop quizzes, fashion performances, discussions, etc. for six weeks every summer. The venue is the former indoor swimming pool of the Stella Matutina (see below) in Reichenfeldpark, right by the city center. The facility, which is renewed every summer, is determined through an international architecture competition. Art and fashion competitions also enrich the festival.

Bosengelmarkt

Every year at the beginning of Advent , this market starts in the center, which is a normal Christmas market during the day and invites you to linger over mulled wine in the evening.

Juggler Festival

Street artists from ten nations appear in the old town for two days as clowns, jugglers, pantomimes and comedians.

Vinobile Feldkirch

The Vinobile wine fair is presented by over 100 winemakers from all of Austria's wine-growing regions.

Feldkirch wine festival

In July, the Feldkirch wine festival , which is known far beyond the country's borders, takes place in Marktgasse. The event was introduced in 1967 and was initially called the Wachau Wine Festival . The catering establishments present various wine specialties here for a weekend.

Sports

The cradle of Austrian football is in Feldkirch . In 1874, English students at Stella Matutina first brought the sport to Austria. In addition to the football club FC Blau-Weiß Feldkirch , which currently (2015/16 season) plays in the regional league (fifth highest division in Austria) in the Waldstadion in the Gisingen district, there are also the clubs TSV Altenstadt in the districts of Altenstadt, Tisis and Tosters . SC Tisis and FC Tosters 99 .

The ice hockey club and Euro League winner from 1998 VEU Feldkirch is of supraregional sporting importance . The Cardinals Feldkirch baseball club plays in the Bundesliga baseball. The women's team of the Blau-Weiss Feldkirch handball club plays in the highest Austrian women's handball league, WHA .

politics

Mayor and City Councilor

Mayor of Feldkirch has been Wolfgang Matt (ÖVP) since March 12, 2019 . Matt took over the office of mayor in the city council meeting on March 12, 2019 from long-time mayor Wilfried Berchtold . In the city administration, he is responsible for general administration, personnel matters and finances, among other things.

Gudrun Petz-Bechter (ÖVP) has also been Vice Mayor since March 2019. In addition to the mayor and the vice mayor, Marlene Thalhammer (Greens), Daniel Allgäuer (FPÖ), Rainer Keckeis (ÖVP), Laura Fetz (Greens), Guntram Rederer (ÖVP), Thomas Spalt (FPÖ) and Benedikt König (ÖVP) belong to the nine-headed man City Council.

mayor

Community representation

BW

The community council has a total of 36 members.

  • With the municipal council and mayoral elections in Vorarlberg in 2000, the municipal council had the following distribution: 21 ÖVP, 6 FPÖ, 5 SPÖ and 4 Greens.
  • With the municipal council and mayoral elections in Vorarlberg in 2005, the municipal council had the following distribution: 24 ÖVP, 5 SPÖ, 5 Greens and 2 FPÖ.
  • With the municipal council and mayoral elections in Vorarlberg 2010 , the municipal council had the following distribution: 25 ÖVP, 5 Greens, 3 FPÖ and 3 SPÖ.
  • With the municipal council and mayoral elections in Vorarlberg 2015 , the municipal council has the following distribution: 18 Mayors BERCHTOLD - Feldkirch People's Party, 7 The Greens - Feldkirch Blooms, 6 FPÖ Feldkirch and party free, 2 SPÖ Feldkirch and party free, 2 NEOS - Feldkirch and 1 WIR platform for families.

coat of arms

Coat of arms at Feldkirch.svg

The coat of arms of the city of Feldkirch consists of a black church flag on a silver shield .

It is used in the stamps and seals as well as in the city flag. Originally the city coat of arms consisted of a picture of Feldkirch Cathedral, on which the coat of arms with the black church flag hung. It resembles the coat of arms of the Counts of Werdenberg-Heiligen and corresponds - in a different color - to the coat of arms of the Counts of Montfort and that of the state of Vorarlberg.

Town twinning

Feldkirch has entered into a town partnership with the German city ​​of Sigmaringen in Baden-Württemberg . The historical background is the common bond with Fidelis von Sigmaringen , whose head is buried in the Capuchin Church in Feldkirch.

Movies

  • James Bond 007: Quantum of consolation : In the spring of 2008, the 22nd James Bond film was shot in Feldkirch  . The filmed drive of the Bond actor Daniel Craig through the alleys of Feldkirch's old town was shown in the film as a drive through the old town of Bregenz . Previously, in 1969, in the sixth film in the James Bond film series, On Her Majesty's Secret Service , reference was made to the city when Bond visited a telephone booth in Feldkirch. At that time, however, the corresponding film scenes were not recorded in Feldkirch, but in Lauterbrunnen , Switzerland .

Personalities

Well-known sons and daughters of the city

Connected to the city

literature

  • Josef Mähr et al .: Feldkirch. The Austrian city on the Alpine Rhine . Unterberger Verlagbuchhandlung, Feldkirch 1949.
  • Gerhard Wanner: History of the city of Feldkirch. 1914-1955 . Rheticus Society , Feldkirch 2000, ISBN 3-900866-69-4 (= Rheticus Society: series of publications by the Rheticus Society , Volume 39).
  • Andreas Weigel: James Joyce's stays in Austria. Innsbruck (1928), Salzburg (1928) and Feldkirch (1915, 1932). In: Michael Ritter (Hrsg.): Praesent 2006. The Austrian Literature Yearbook. Literary events in Austria from July 2004 to June 2005. pp. 93–105. Vienna: present 2005.
  • Andreas Weigel: Once upon a time in Vorarlberg. James Joyce and Feldkirch . In: Yearbook of the Center for Irish-German Studies 2000/01. In: Marieke Krajenbrink and Joachim Lerchenmueller. Trier: Wissenschaftlicher Verlag 2001. pp. 159–177.

Web links

Commons : Feldkirch  - Collection of images, videos and audio files
Wikisource: Feldkirch  - Sources and full texts

swell

Individual evidence

  1. State of Vorarlberg - Vorarlberg guidelines (PDF; 3.1 MB)
  2. ^ State of Vorarlberg: State Office for Surveying and Geoinformation
  3. a b c d Stadt Feldkirch: Feldkirch in numbers , accessed on December 2, 2015.
  4. Stadtgemeinde Feldkirch: Mayor and districts (accessed on February 17, 2012)
  5. Heinz Starchl: Feldkircher at the top of the Reformation ( Memento of the original from December 31, 2008 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. @1@ 2Template: Webachiv / IABot / freiklick.at
  6. ^ Air raid on Feldkirch on October 1, 1943 , website regiowiki.at, accessed on November 27, 2014.
  7. ^ Statistics Austria, A look at the community of Feldkirch, population development. Retrieved March 27, 2019 .
  8. Terminal description of the ÖBB Autoisezug Autoverladerampe Feldkirch (PDF)
  9. e5 communities in Austria as of March 2019
  10. ^ Hubert Weitensfelder: Christian Getzner 1782-1848 ; in Land Vorarlberg (ed.): Vorarlberg Chronik
  11. a b c Andreas Weigel: Feldkirch and fate . For the 125th birthday of James Joyce (1882–1941). St. Galler Tagblatt, February 2, 2007.
  12. Andreas Weigel: The fate of "Ulysses". James Joyce and Feldkirch, Vorarlberg. In: Montfort. Quarterly magazine for the past and present of Vorarlberg. 52nd year. 2000. Issue 3. pp. 289-301.
  13. Andreas Weigel: An animal name conflict. Dispute between Hypobank and Hotel Löwen thwarted Joyce honor. ( Memento from November 5, 2012 in the Internet Archive ) In: Wiener Zeitung from July 6, 2000. p. 10.
  14. Official homepage of the poolbar festival .
  15. Stadtgemeinde Feldkirch: Mayor Wolfgang Matt (accessed on March 12, 2019)
  16. Stadtgemeinde Feldkirch: City councilors (accessed on March 13, 2019)
  17. a b feldkirch.at: List of Feldkirch mayors from 1381 . Retrieved May 2, 2017.
  18. Cornelia Albertani, Ulrich Nachbaur: Vorarlberg municipal coat of arms registry . Ed .: Vorarlberger Landesarchiv. 3. Edition. Bregenz 2011, ISBN 978-3-902622-17-4 , pp. 25 ( vorarlberg.at [PDF]).
  19. ^ Siegfried Tesche: The great James Bond Atlas: All films, locations and backgrounds. Wissen-Media-Verlag, Gütersloh / Munich 2008, ISBN 978-3-577-07305-9 , p. 167 restricted preview in the Google book search
  20. RAI portrait: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CUlv7belloA
  21. City of Feldkirch names Gasse after Arthur Conan Doyle. In: Salzburger Nachrichten (SN.com). May 23, 2019, accessed June 5, 2019 .