Horn#

Horn, Lower Austria, town in the district of Horn, alt. 311 m, pop. 6,264, area 39.23 km2, centre of administration, education, traffic and economy in the Horn basin (rim bay of the molasse zone) in the eastern Waldviertel region. - District commission, district court, employment services, tax office, surveying office, Chamber of Labour, Economic Chamber, local Chamber of Farmers, Chamber of Agricultural and Allied Workers, Radetzky-Kaserne barracks, hospital, local health and social insurance office, counselling centre of the psycho-social services, club house; schools: secondary school, Aufbaugymnasium (upper secondary school), commercial college, Fachschule fuer wirtschaftliche Berufe (commercial college), 2 Bundeskonvikte (residential schools for boys and girls), Canisiusheim seminary for adult theology students, nursing school, civil defence school of the Niederoesterreichischer Zivilschutzverband; waterworks, pig auctioning hall. Large number of commuters from the surrounding areas (3,847 employed persons 1991), service sector (about 64 % of all employees, mainly personal, social and public services, e.g. hospital with 600 employees) and building trade dominate; large print shop, development and manufacture of electronic measuring equipment (laser guns, space engineering), textile industry; the "Kulturpark Kamptal" is an important tourist attraction (completed in 1996 in cooperation with 10 other municipalities). - First documented mention around 1045-65, fortress and town built 1150-1160, surrounded by a wall (built before 1304), extended in the 16th and 17th  centuries (tower 1594), of particular importance in the Reformation Period ("Horner Bund"). Gothic-Baroque cemetery church, early-Baroque high altar (1647), late-Gothic stone pulpit; parish church (1594-97 built as Protestant plain hall church) with paintings by M. J. Schmidt (1779); Piarist church (1658-62) with altar painting by M. J. Schmidt (1777); former Piarist monastery (Renaissance core, Baroque parts, 19th  century alterations, now culture centre); former citizens´ hospital (founded 1395, now Hoebarth museum and Mader museum, including agricultural engineering); castle (built in the 12th  century, alterations 1539, the Landgericht court building was added in 1591) with English gardens; former brewery (first documented mention 1588); houses from the Renaissance, Baroque and Biedermeier periods; Baroque memorial columns (column dedicated to the Virgin Mary 1679, tabernacle pillar 1642, Tuscan column 17th  century) and Floriani fountain (1727); Breiteneich Renaissance castle (1541).

Literature#