!!!Freistadt

Freistadt, Upper Austria, town in the district of Freistadt, alt. 560 
m, pop. 6,917 (1981: pop. 6,251), area 12.88 km%%sup 2/%, principal 
town of the lower Muehlviertel region on the salt route to Bohemia. - 
District Commission, district court, employment services, revenue 
office, surveying office, Tilly-Kaserne barracks, official automobile 
inspection agency, road maintenance depot, health and social insurance 
agency, Chamber of Labour, Economic Chamber, district Chamber of 
Agriculture, provincial hospital, club aerodrome (in Hirschbach), 
animal breeding station, laboratory of the Federal Institute of Plant 
Cultivation, day centre of the Lebenshilfe charity, shooting range, 
schools such as Bundesgymnasium and Bundesrealgymnasium, vocational 
school for construction trades, commercial academy, college for 
commercial occupations (private), secondary school of agriculture. 
Brewery and production of carbonated beverages, production of meat and 
sausage products, furniture, kitchen furniture, some tourism. - Late 
medieval town centre and well-preserved remains of fortifications 
(city moat, keep, Linz and Boehmen gates, Dechanthof tower, Scheibling 
tower); typical example of a planned city area based on a rectangular 
pattern. Late Gothic burghers' houses with arcaded courtyards and 
Baroque façades are located in the city centre. Late Gothic 
city parish church with rich star and loop-rib vaults by M. Klayndl 
(1483-1501), in 1520-1522 the church was rebuilt as a basilica with 
five naves, redesigned in 1690 by C. A. Carlone in Baroque style and 
redesigned in neo-Gothic style in 1877. Gothic Church of Our Lady 
(former hospital church) built in the mid-15%%sup th/%  century, with 
stained-glass windows dating from around 1500. Former prince's castle, 
drastically altered medieval fortress (further renovations in 
1801-1806, 1880) with Muehlviertler Heimathaus centre (since 1926). 
Freistadt was the centre of the iron and salt trades between the 
Danube area and Bohemia until well into the 18%%sup th/%  century, in 
the 19%%sup th/%  century a railway station for the (horse-drawn) line 
Linz-Budweis was also located there

!Literature
Oesterr. Staedtebuch, vol. I, Oberoesterreich, 1968.


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