Weitra

Borough Weitra
coat of arms	Austria map
Basic data
Country:	Austria
State :	Lower Austria
Political District :	Gmuend
License plate :	GD
Surface:	52.66 km²
Coordinates :	48 ° 42 '  N , 14 ° 54'  E Coordinates: 48 ° 42 '3 "  N , 14 ° 53' 44"  E
Height :	562  m above sea level A.
Residents :	2,645 (January 1, 2020)
Population density :	50 inhabitants per km²
Postal code :	3970
Area code :	02856
Community code :	3 09 42
Address of the municipal administration:	Rathausplatz 1 3970 Weitra
Website:	www.weitra.gv.at
politics
Mayor :	Patrick Layr ( ÖVP )
Municipal Council : ( 2020 ) (21 members)	16 3 2 16 3 2  A total of 21 seats ÖVP : 16 SPÖ : 3 FPÖ : 2
Location of Weitra in the Gmünd district
View of Weitra from the castle tower
Source: Municipal data from Statistics Austria

Town Hall Square

Weitra Upper Gate

Weitra ( Czech Vitoraz ) is an Austrian municipality in the Gmünd district in Lower Austria with 2645 inhabitants (as of January 1, 2020). It is nicknamed Kuenringerstadt .

geography

Weitra is located in the Waldviertel in Lower Austria in the Lainsitz valley . The area of ​​the municipality covers 52.53 square kilometers. 42.23 percent of the area is forested.

Community structure

The municipality includes the following 12 localities (population in brackets as of January 1, 2020):

• Great Wolfgers (188)
• Oberbruhl (48)
• Oberwindhag (56)
• Reinprechts (171)
• St. Wolfgang (116)
• Spital (211) including Oberweidenhöfen
• Sulz (64)
• Tiefenbach (50) including Am Böhmberg
• Unterbrühl (18)
• Walterschlag (67)
• Weitra (1557)
• Wetzles (99) including pasture farms

The community consists of the cadastral communities Brühl, Großwolfgers, Oberwindhag, Reinprechts, St. Wolfgang , Spital , Sulz, Walterschlag, Weitra and Wetzles.

With the Lower Austria. Municipal structure improvement was incorporated in 1967 Brühl and Wetzles and in 1971 Großwolfgers, Reinprechts, Spital and St. Wolfgang were incorporated.

Neighboring communities

	Unserfrau-Altweitra	Grossdietmanns
Harbach mud bath		Schweiggers Waldenstein
St. Martin	Bad Großpertholz	Großschönau

Where the communities of Moorbad Harbach and Unserfrau-Altweitra border each other, Weitra is kept at a minimum distance of about 500 m from the Czech Republic from their areas .

climate

Average monthly temperatures and rainfall for Weitra Jan Feb Mar Apr May Jun Jul Aug Sep Oct Nov Dec Max. Temperature ( ° C ) 1.4 3.1 7.6 13.5 18.7 21.5 23.8 23.3 18.4 12.9 5.9 2.0 O 12.7 Min. Temperature (° C) -5.6 -5.0 -1.5 1.5 6.0 9.3 11.2 10.7 7.2 3.2 -0.8 -4.2 O 2.7 Temperature (° C) -2.4 -1.5 2.4 7.0 12.4 15.5 17.4 16.6 11.9 7.1 2.2 -1.3 O 7.3 Precipitation ( mm ) 34 31 53 51 81 90 105 99 60 39 41 40 Σ 724 Humidity ( % ) 74.4 66.6 60.9 52.2 51.3 53.7 53.0 52.9 57.4 64.3 75.6 77.7 O 61.7 T e m p e r a t u r 1.4 -5.6 3.1 -5.0 7.6 -1.5 13.5 1.5 18.7 6.0 21.5 9.3 23.8 11.2 23.3 10.7 18.4 7.2 12.9 3.2 5.9 -0.8 2.0 -4.2 Jan Feb Mar Apr May Jun Jul Aug Sep Oct Nov Dec Source: ZAMG average climate values ​​1981 - 2010

history

The Weitra dominion originally belonged to Bohemia. In 1201 the Kuenringer Hadmar II founded the castle town of Weitra above the slightly older settlement Altweitra , which was probably named after a Slav named Vitorad (hence the current Czech name). The first granting of town charter also presumably fell under the Kuenringer rule. The core of the population were farming community .

Since the Kuenringer Ottokar II. Přemysl had supported, after his death (1278) Weitra was claimed by the Habsburgs ; since 1296 the city was finally in their possession. From May 26, 1321 ( Frederick the Fair ) is the oldest document obtained Weitras citizens with brewing - and Schank - privileges endowed.

In 1581 Rudolf II gave the castle and town of Weitra to Wolf Rumpf Freiherrn vom Wielroß ; after his death it fell to the Fürstenberg family through marriage in 1607 , who held the manor until 1848 and are still the owners of the castle and the associated large estates in the area.

Weitra was ravaged by fires in 1651 and 1672 .

The city has been known for its breweries since the 14th century , of which there were 22 in the heyday, today there are still two. Later, based on the weaving mill , the textile industry was added , as in the entire Waldviertel region .

Located in the border region, Weitra lost the part of its hinterland in southern Bohemia after the First World War . This was particularly noticeable through the Iron Curtain after the Second World War . The peripheral location and the fact that it had not been possible in the past to connect the city to the high-level transport network and to settle industry (even if the southern branch of the Waldviertel narrow-gauge railways from Gmünd to Groß-Gerungs was opened in 1903 ) had a disadvantageous effect on the economic situation.

In 1959 the Kuenringerkaserne was opened, so that Weitra became a garrison town .

religion

96.1% of the population are Roman Catholic , 1.3% Protestant . Other religious communities do not go beyond 0.5%. 1.8% are without religious beliefs .

Population development

The decrease in population since 1991 is based on a negative birth balance . The migration balance has been positive since then.

politics

The municipal council has 21 members.

• With the municipal council elections in Lower Austria in 1990, the municipal council had the following distribution: 14 ÖVP, 5 SPÖ, and 2 FPÖ.
• With the municipal council elections in Lower Austria in 1995, the municipal council had the following distribution: 12 ÖVP, 5 SPÖ, 3 FPÖ, and 1 UL-independent list.
• With the municipal council elections in Lower Austria in 2000, the municipal council had the following distribution: 13 ÖVP, 4 WIR, 3 SPÖ, and 1 FPÖ.
• With the municipal council elections in Lower Austria in 2005 , the municipal council had the following distribution: 13 ÖVP, 5 SPÖ, and 3 WIR-We for Weitra.
• With the municipal council elections in Lower Austria 2010 , the municipal council had the following distribution: 15 ÖVP, 4 SPÖ, and 2 WIR.
• With the municipal council elections in Lower Austria in 2015 , the municipal council had the following distribution: 15 ÖVP, 4 SPÖ, and 2 WIR.
• With the municipal council elections in Lower Austria 2020 , the municipal council has the following distribution: 16 ÖVP, 3 SPÖ, and 2 FPÖ.

mayor

• until 2010 Werner Himmer (ÖVP)
• from 2010 to 2020 Raimund Fuchs (ÖVP)
• since 2020 Patrick Layr (ÖVP)

Culture and sights

City fortification Weitra with passage to the church square

Weitra Castle

See also:  List of listed objects in Weitra

• Weitra city fortifications with the Upper Gate .
• Weitra Castle with Castle Theater
• Catholic parish church Weitra Hll. Peter and Paul
• Catholic parish church St. Wolfgang bei Weitra hl. wolfgang
• Catholic parish church Spital bei Weitra hl. John the Baptist
• Rathausplatz with old town houses (especially sgraffitohaus Rathausplatz 4) and Trinity column
• Wachberg transmitter
• Cistern in the house of the cellar at Hauptplatz 24

Museums

• Museum of the old textile factory
• Castle Museum

Parks

• Promenade paths along the city wall
• Gabrielental: walking and hiking trail on both sides of the Lainsitz

economy

Major economic sectors are agriculture and forestry as well as summer tourism . Weitra is the seat of a brewery , the Weitra beer workshop , which can look back on a long tradition but has belonged to the Zwettl private brewery since 2003 . The name of the brewed bio - beer is "Hadmar" - after the founder of Weitra. This type of beer was created on the occasion of the national exhibition in 1994, which took place in Weitra.

There are 162 agricultural and forestry holdings in Weitra, 50 of which are full-time businesses (as of 2010). In the manufacturing sector, 34 companies employ 283 people, mainly in the manufacture of goods and in construction. The service sector employs 826 people, almost half of them in social and public services (as of 2011).

There are around 11,000 overnight stays in the municipality (as of 2017), the majority of which are from June to October. The number has decreased by almost 30 percent since 2008.

The Eastern Austrian Grenzlandweg , the Eisenwurzen long-distance hiking trail , the Thayatalweg , the Lower Austrian circular hiking trail and the European long-distance hiking trails E6 and E8 run through Weitra .

There is a pharmacy in Weitra. General practitioners ordain here, a dentist and an ordination center offer care by other specialists.

traffic

Narrow-gauge train at Weitra station

• Road: Weitra is located on Gmünder Straße B 41 from Gmünd to Freistadt and is the northern end point of Greiner Straße B 119 coming from Grein or the road connection to Zwettl .
• Rail: Regular operations on the Waldviertel narrow-gauge railway were discontinued in 2001; the route is still used for tourism as a museum railway .

education

There are two kindergartens, an elementary school and a new middle school in the city .

Public facilities

In Weitra, the training company of the Armed Forces in the Kuenringer barracks takes place several times a year the batch course or course 1 for one-year volunteers .

Personalities

Sons and daughters of the church

• Ignaz Ram (1781–1850), Austrian master builder and architect
• Alois Tampier (1913–2007), Austrian clergyman and poet
• Sonja Zwazl (* 1946), Austrian politician (ÖVP), President of the Lower Austria Chamber of Commerce

People related to the community

• Klara Hitler (1860-1907), mother of Adolf Hitler was in hospital born
• Wilhelm Szabo (1901–1986), teacher, Austrian poet and poetry translator, is one of the most important Austrian poets of the 20th century; Wilhelm-Szabo-Straße in Weitra was named after him in honor of his outstanding services
• Ludwig Knapp , was the owner of a sawmill in 1944, in which he employed 24 Jews with a permit, which he thus saved from safe deportation ; He was supported by Yad Vashem as Righteous Among the Nations award
• Peter Florian (* 1964), Austrian artist, lived in Weitra from 1964 to 1979. On the occasion of the city's 800th anniversary (1983), he showed over 80 works in Weitra Castle.

literature

• Wolfgang Katzenschlager, Herbert Knittler: Historical Weitra. Views from six centuries , Verl. Bibliothek d. Province, Weitra 2009, ISBN 978-3-85252-839-7 .
• Castles, monasteries and chateaus Waldviertel regions, Danube region, South Bohemia, Vysočina, South Moravia ISBN 978-3-9502262-2-5 , p. 138 f

Web links

Commons : Weitra  - collection of images, videos and audio files

Wikisource: Weitra in the Topographia Austriacarum (Mathäus Merian)  - sources and full texts

• 30942 - Weitra. Community data, Statistics Austria .
• Community homepage of the community of Weitra
• Pilgrimage Church of St. Wolfgang

Individual evidence

1. ↑ Statistics Austria: Population on January 1st, 2020 by locality (area status on January 1st, 2020) , ( CSV )
2. ^ Austrian city atlas: Weitra
3. ↑ Wolfgang Katzenschlager, In: NÖN, 12/2011, p.37 , accessed on September 1, 2017
4. ↑ ^{a b c} Municipality of Weitra: History of the City of Weitra , accessed on September 1, 2017
5. ^ Herbert Knittler: The legal sources of the city of Weitra. Austrian Academy of Sciences: Fontes rerum Austriacarum III / 4, Böhlau, Vienna, 1975.
6. ^ Statistics Austria, A look at the community of Weitra, population development. Retrieved August 25, 2019 . 
7. ^ Result of the local council election 1995 in Weitra. Office of the Lower Austrian State Government, March 30, 2000, accessed on February 15, 2020 . 
8. ^ Election result of the municipal council election 2000 in Weitra. Office of the Lower Austrian State Government, February 4, 2005, accessed on February 15, 2020 . 
9. ^ Election result of the municipal council election 2005 in Weitra. Office of the Lower Austrian State Government, March 4, 2005, accessed on February 15, 2020 . 
10. ^ Election result of the municipal council election 2010 in Weitra. Office of the Lower Austrian State Government, October 8, 2010, accessed on February 15, 2020 . 
11. ^ Election result of the 2015 municipal council election in Weitra. Office of the Lower Austrian State Government, December 1, 2015, accessed on April 28, 2019 . 
12. ↑ Results of the municipal council election 2020 in Weitra. Office of the Lower Austrian State Government, January 26, 2020, accessed on February 15, 2020 . 
13. ↑ Weitra Cistern ( Memento from October 27, 2014 in the Internet Archive ) Information board on a house / wall, City Wall Cities Lower Austria, Bernhard Essl Photo Gallery, bernhardessl.nl, March 22 (2011?), Accessed October 19, 2014
14. ^ Statistics Austria, A look at the community of Weitra, agricultural and forestry operations. Retrieved August 25, 2019 . 
15. ^ Statistics Austria, A look at the community of Weitra, workplaces. Retrieved August 25, 2019 . 
16. ^ Statistics Austria, A look at the community of Weitra, employees. Retrieved August 25, 2019 . 
17. ^ Statistics Austria, A look at the community of Weitra, overnight stays. Retrieved August 15, 2019 . 
18. ↑ City of Weitra, My City, Health & Social Affairs, Doctors & Medical Center. Retrieved August 25, 2019 . 
19. ↑ Alpenbahnen, Waldviertelbahn. Retrieved August 25, 2019 . 
20. ^ City of Weitra, My City, School & Education. Retrieved August 25, 2019 . 
21. ↑ Armored Staff Battalion 3 . Website of the Austrian Armed Forces. Retrieved February 3, 2012.