Amstetten#

Amstetten, Lower Austria, town in the district of Amstetten, alt. 281 m, pop. 21,972 (1981: pop. 21,989), area 52.19 km2, industrial town in Ybbstal Valley in the Alpine foothills. - Most important district centre in southwestern Lower Austria; school centre, railway junction (since 1872), garrison (Ostarrichi-Kaserne barracks), District Commission, District Court, Tax Authority and Standards Authority (calibrations for weights and measures), Employment Services, District Chamber of Agriculture and Allied Workers, Economic Chamber, Chamber of Labour, Chamber of Agricultural and Allied Workers, hospital, outpatient clinic, hostel of the Salesians of Don Bosco, J. Poelz Hall, electrical power plant (Allersdorf); schools: Bundesgymnasium secondary school, Handelskademie (commercial academy), Hoehere Bundes-Lehranstalt for business professions, Federal Institution for pre-school education, specialised school, vocational school for metalworking trades; summer operetta festival (since 1982); more than 50% of the 15,060 employed people (1991) are in the service sector (esp. commerce, public service, health care); also timber processing and metal processing (Umdasch Industrie GmbH, Baumetall Amstetten Ges. m. b. H.), chemical, concrete and artificial stone, paper, glass, clothing and food industries. - Incorporated as town in 1897; lentiform market square, town hall (1898); landowners' town houses with historicist and art nouveau façades; parish church of St. Stephen: staggered Gothic church (14th-15th centuries), reticulated vault (around 1500), baptistry with irregular star-ribbed vault, fresco remnants and epitaphs from the 16th century; Herz-Jesu-Kirche (Sacred Heart Church, 1899) in neo-Romanesque form, completed 1931; Heilandskirche Protestant church (1955-1957); St. Agatha filial church in Dornach, first documented 1275, Gothic fortified church, Romanesque core, with high, raised late-Gothic choir (1513). Most important find of the Roman treasure in Austria in the cadastral district of Mauer bei Amstetten; Roman burial finds in Hausmening; Castle of Ulmerfeld (14th -15th century) with castle keep, Gothic chapel ("Life of Mary" frescoes, around 1360) and museum of local history. Castle of Edla, with armoury collection.

Further reading#