!!!Dornbirn

Dornbirn, Vorarlberg, town (1901) in the district of Dornbirn, alt. 
437 m, pop. 40,735, area 120.93 km%%sup 2/%, largest town in 
Vorarlberg, many gardens, popular venue of trade fairs and important 
commercial centre in the Rhine valley, located at the main north-south 
traffic route. District Commission, district court, employment 
services, measurement office, prison, hospital, Chamber of Labour, 
Medical Association of Vorarlberg, pension insurance office, local 
health and social insurance office, culture and congress centre, 
multipurpose complex hall, Vorarlberg stadium; Medienhaus Schwarzach 
media centre ("Vorarlberger Nachrichten"), studios of the ORF Austrian 
broadcasting corporation, Hohenems-Dornbirn gliding field and club 
airfield, Department of Textile Chemistry and Physics of Innsbruck 
University, consulates, New-Apostolic church, SOS Kinderdorf 
children´s village, home for the deaf and hard-of-hearing, 
Kolpinghaus centre, ice sports centre, Dorotheum auction house, town 
museum  Vorarlberger Naturschau (modern museum of nature studies, 
geological, botanical and zoological collections, Vorarlberg 
settlement types); schools: Fachhochschule, Bundesgymnasium, 
Bundesrealgymnasium and Bundesoberstufenrealgymnasium secondary 
schools, 3 vocational schools, domestic science school, Bundeslehr- 
und -versuchsanstalt fuer Textilindustrie (textile college), Hoehere 
Technische Lehranstalt des Vereins Technikum Vorarlberg 
(technical/engineering college), Werkmeisterschule (vocational 
college) of the Institute for Economic Development (WIFI), Vorarlberg 
Landessportschule (sports school); cableway leading up the Karren 
mountain (971 m).

\\
Commercial centre with high-level service sector (approx. 58 % of 
all 18,597 employed persons 1991, particularly trade, also personal, 
social and public services), has remained a centre of the Austrian 
textile industry despite economic crisis and drop in employment 
figures, electrical and metal-working industries (lamps, mechanical 
engineering, cranes, cast-iron ware), food (Oelz-Backwaren bread and 
confectionery) and ceramics industries, wax products, breweries; every 
September Dornbirner autumn trade fair and in April a spring trade 
fair on the Messegelaende showground (Messepark).

\\
Documented mention in 895 as "Torrinpuiron" (Old High German bur = 
settlement; "settlement of Torro"), agglomeration of several villages; 
development of the textile industry since the end of the 18%%sup th/%  
century (1773 first spinning mill). Classicist parish church (1840), 
next to the "Rotes Haus" (1639, wooden building with intersecting 
gable) as typical representative of houses in the Rhine valley; 
industrial monuments: 2 shingle-roofed factory buildings (around 1830) 
with drying tower (1894) in Wallenmahd. Rappenlochschlucht, 
Schaufelschlucht and Alplochschlucht ravines (waterfalls) and Lake 
Staufensee in the vicinity.

!Literature
Oesterreichisches Staedtebuch, vol. III, Vorarlberg, 
1973; W. Haemmerle, Beitraege zur Geographie der Stadt Dornbirn, 
doctoral thesis, Innsbruck 1974; W. Bundschuh, Bestandsaufnahme Heimat 
Dornbirn 1850-1950, 1990.


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