Predlitz-Turrach

Coat of arms of the former municipality

Entrance to Turrach, Montanmuseum

Predlitz-Turrach is a former municipality with 810 inhabitants (as of October 31, 2013) in the judicial district or district of Murau in Styria . As part of the municipal structural reform in Styria , it has been merged with the municipality of Stadl an der Mur since 2015 . The resulting new community bears the name Stadl-Predlitz . The basis for this was the Styrian Municipal Structural Reform Act - StGsrG.

geography

Geographical location

Predlitz-Turrach is located in the upper Mur Valley in the Gurktal Alps . Predlitz and Einach are on the banks of the Mur , from Predlitz the Turracher Straße B 95 leads along the Turrach brook in a southerly direction via the village of Turrach up to the Turracher Höhe at an altitude of 1763 m . The lowest point of the community is 890 m above sea level on the Mur near Einach, the highest is the summit of the Eisenhut at 2441 m .

From a political point of view, the municipality formed the south-western end of the federal state of Styria: to the west of the municipality ran the border between the federal states of Styria and Salzburg , the neighboring Salzburg municipalities were Thomatal and Ramingstein in the west and Tamsweg in the north. In the south, Predlitz-Turrach bordered the communities of Albeck , Reichenau and Krems in Carinthia . Neighboring communities in the east were the Styrian community Stadl an der Mur and Deutsch-Griffen in Carinthia .

Community structure

The municipality comprised the following three localities (population in brackets as of January 1, 2020):

Stadl an der Mur
Single (241)
Predlitz (362)
Turrach
Turracherhöhe

The community consisted of the cadastral communities Einach (2,328.33 ha) and Predlitz (12,657.36 ha).

The population had long been declining; In 1869 there were still 1369 people, in 2001 there were only 899, of which 449 were in Predlitz, 250 in Einach and 200 in Turrach. The northern part of the Turracher Höhe belonged to the area of the district of Turrach.

There are the cadastral communities Einach and Predlitz, which were originally independent local communities. On January 1, 1969, they were united to the municipality of Predlitz-Turrach.

history

At the end of the 6th century Slavs settled on the upper reaches of the Mur, at which time the settlement of Predlitz was founded. The place name originated from the Slavic term prědělъ , which can mean pass or watershed, and is probably a reference to a path over the Turracher Höhe. The place name for Turrach is derived from the old name "Durrach" for a forest area.

The political community of Predlitz was established in 1849/50.

Culture and sights

The “Wood and Iron” mining museum in Turrach with exhibits from the 250-year mining history of the place.

Natural monuments

Turrachbach-Klause , bottleneck of the Turrach south of Predlitz

Economy and Infrastructure

traffic

The Turracher Straße B 95, which connects Predlitz-Turrach with the federal states of Salzburg (to the west) and Carinthia (to the south), runs through the area. In Predlitz, Murauer Straße B 97 branches off from the B 95 in an easterly direction to Murau .

There is also a Murtalbahn station in Predlitz .

Established businesses

The area consists of 58% forests and 27% alpine pastures , around 8% are used for agriculture. The mining operations in Turrach from 1660 experienced its heyday in the middle of the 19th century and was for a long time the most important economic factor in the community, but it was discontinued in 1909 .

In the village of Turrach, the venerable “Zum Bergmann” inn (chef Georg Meier) is very popular. It is the highest restaurant in Styria.

Eisenhut ( 2441 m ) and Wintertalernock ( 2394 m )

U11 of the Murtalbahn runs through the Predlitz- Ladin station with a steam train

The Turrach ironworks

In 1662 Johann Adolf Graf zu Schwarzenberg had a raft furnace built in the village. At the time, this was a specialty alongside the otherwise common "stucco ovens".

The difficult fusion of the "strictly liquid" Turrach ores posed a major problem. An upswing was brought about by a newly built furnace in 1826 which enabled better smelting performance and lower charcoal consumption. In 1838 the Turrach blast furnace was the first in Styria to be equipped with a wind heater.

For a long time, the local plant was a supplier of pig iron for the Schwarzenberg steelworks in Paal, Murau, Katsch and Niederwölz.

When Johann Adolf II, Prince of Schwarzenberg , decided in 1861 to build a Bessemer steelworks in Turrach , this was another pioneering achievement in the iron and steel industry. With the help of a tiltable converter ("Bessemer pear"), Austria's first really good Bessemer steel was produced in Turrach in 1863. In 1866 the plant was even expanded to include two converters. In the years that followed, however, the remote location became increasingly detrimental. With the formation of larger companies, the pressure of competition became too great and in 1898 the oldest Bessemerhütte in Austria was closed.

Personalities

Honorary citizen

1973: Johann Bammer (1922–2017), Provincial Councilor
1980: Anton Peltzmann (1920–2000), Provincial Councilor

Sons and daughters of the church

Gustav Kuhn (* 1945), conductor, director

Personalities associated with Predlitz-Turrach

Peter Tunner the Elder (1786–1844), Montanist
Peter Tunner (1809-1897), Montanist

literature

Walter Brunner : Einach. History of a mountain farming community in Upper Styria. Predlitz-Turrach 1988.

Individual evidence

↑ State of Styria: Final population status on October 31, 2013 ( Memento of the original from April 15, 2015 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. (Excel file, 85 kB; accessed on May 2, 2015) @1@ 2

^ Styrian municipal structural reform

↑ Section 3, Paragraph 7, Item 3 of the Act of December 17, 2013 on the reorganization of the municipalities of the State of Styria ( Styrian Municipal Reform Act - StGsrG). Provincial Law Gazette for Styria of April 2, 2014. No. 31, year 2014. ZDB -ID 705127-x . P. 3.

↑ Statistics Austria: Population on January 1st, 2020 by locality (area status on January 1st, 2020) , ( CSV )

↑ Law of December 3, 1968 on territorial changes for municipalities

↑ General State Law and Government Gazette for the Crown Land of Styria, Issue 21, October 7, 1850, No. 378.

↑ Neue Zeit (October 18, 1973), p. 7.