!!!Enns, Stadt

Enns, Upper Austria, town in the district of Linz-Land, alt. 
281 m, pop. 10,192, area 33.27 km%%sup 2/%, town charter in 
1212, south of the confluence of the River Enns with the River Danube, 
at the border to Lower Austria. - District court, District Commission, 
health and social insurance agency, garrison (Towarek Barracks), 
non-commissioned officers´ school, hospital, children´s 
home, WIFI´s master mechanic school, port; in 1991 approximately 
53 % of the workforce were employed in trade and industry. 
Fashion jewellery manufacture (Gablonz glass products and bijouterie 
articles), plating industry, mechanical engineering and precision 
gearwheel manufacture, wood processing and a number of new businesses 
(a chemist chain´s distribution centre for western Austria, 
tagging works of a large clothes retail chain). After the sugar 
refinery (1988) and the chemical industry had been closed down, a 
period of massive economic restructuring set in, with numerous 
different smaller businesses expected to contribute to the 
regeneration of the area. The Danube power plant Abwinden-Asten (1978) 
is near E.

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Settlement in this area started in the Neolithic period. The cadastral 
district of  Lorch is the site of the Roman town  Lauriacum and the 
parish church of St. Lorenz (basilica minor); around 900 Enns castle 
served as a frontier fortress against the Magyars on the left bank of 
the river Enns; trade centre from the 12%%sup th/% century; oldest 
town privileges in Austria. Much of the medieval town wall and its 
towers has been preserved. "Frauenturm" (Lady´s Tower) with 
Johannite chapel (14%%sup th/%  century frescoes), 59-meter city 
tower (1564-1568); Gothic burgher houses with Renaissance arcaded 
courtyards and Renaissance or Baroque façades; the old town 
hall (1547) now houses the town museum (with collections from 
prehistoric and Roman times). Parish church of St. Marien (former 
Minorite church), hall church with two naves (1276- second half of 
15%%sup th/%  century, choir window by M. Prachensky, 1975) with 
Wallsee chapel (around 1340-1345) and Gothic cloisters; 
Citizens´ Hospital church, built in Romanesque-Gothic style, 
extensions from around 1750 (present Protestant parish church); 
Ennsegg castle (1500-1569), with corner tower and tower with spiral 
staircase, adapted and extended in the 18%%sup th/%   and 
19%%sup th/%  century, castle chapel.

!Literature
Oesterreichisches Staedtebuch, vol. I, 
Oberoesterreich, 1968; H. and G. Kneifel (eds.), Mein Enns, 1988; A. 
Hudec, Kirchenfuehrer Enns-St. Marien, 1998.


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