!!!Krems an der Donau
Krems an der Donau, Lower Austria, statutory town in the district of
Krems an der Donau, alt. 203 m, pop. 22,783, area
51.61 km%%sup 2/%, situated at the point where the River Krems
flows into the Danube, on the edge of the Wachau region; landing stage
for Danube shipping. District Commission, district court, command of
the district gendarmerie, provincial court and jail, labour
inspectorate, employment services, financial office, office of
weights, measures and surveying, customs office, administrative office
for the waterways of central Lower Austria, shipping police, road
building administration for Lower Austria, federal construction
office, federal institute of agriculture and chemistry, environmental
protection institute of Lower Austria (dump in Gneixendorf), regional
construction office of Lower Austria, range of the Austrian Armed
Forces in Krems-Egelsee, Economic Chamber, Chamber of Labour, district
office of the Chamber of Agriculture, regional health insurance agency
(Gebietskrankenkasse), dental clinic, hospital, adult education
centre, Institute for Research into Daily Life and Material Culture of
the Middle Ages and the Early Modern Period, Stadtsaal multi-purpose
hall, various schools such as a theological college of the Piarists, 2
Bundesgymnasium secondary schools, 3 Bundesrealgymnasium secondary
schools, 1 Bundesoberstufenrealgymnasium upper-level secondary school,
Oberstufenrealgymnasium (upper-level mathematics-oriented secondary
school) of the Institute of English Ladies, Handelsakademie
(commercial academy), 2 Hoehere gewerbliche Lehranstalt schools
(advanced-level school of trade and crafts), Hoehere technische
Lehranstalt (HTL, advanced-level technical school),
Donau-Universitaet Krems, teacher training institute (Paedagogische
Akademie) run by the diocese of St. Poelten, Weinakademie (wine
academy), Fachhochschule, airfield in Krems-Langenlois.- Communities
of the Old Catholic and the New Apostolic Church, Theiss thermal power
plant near Krems (steam and gas turbines, 552 MW, built in 1973),
Lower Austrian Provincial Trade Fair. 14,517 employed persons (1991),
of which 60% in the service sector (personal, social and public
services, commerce and trade, port with numerous forwarding agencies).
Production sector: steel processing (including VOEST-Alpine KREMS),
chemical industry, furniture and textile industry, forestry enterprise
of the Oesterreichische Bundesforste AG (Austrian Federal Forests),
summer tourism (115,759 overnight stays); wine-growing.- During loess
extraction in Krems-Hundssteig a Palaeolithic hunting hut with several
fireplaces was discovered in 1899 (from around 35,000 B.C., one of the
most important finds from the Palaeolithic Age in Austria), but it
was not immediately systematically examined by scientists and contains
around 20,000 stone and bone implements ( Galgenberg bei Stratzing ,
Venus vom Galgenberg). First documented mention in 995, town charter
and mint ("Kremser Pfennig" coin) around 1130, from the Middle Ages to
the 19%%sup th/% century important commercial centre; remains of a
medieval fortification with Steiner Tor (town gate, around 1480) and
powder magazine (1477); Early Baroque parish church of St. Veit,
(1616-1630, by C. Biasino), one of the largest and earliest Baroque
churches in Lower Austria, southern tower in part Gothic, wall and
ceiling paintings (1787) by M. J. Schmidt (called "Kremser
Schmidt") and altarpieces by M. Altomonte (1715) and F. A.
Maulbertsch (1775), Late Gothic church of a citizen's hospital (around
1470) with Baroque interior; Early Gothic Dominican monastery
(1240-1265), later remodelled in Baroque style, houses the museum of
viniculture (archaeological finds from the area, collection of
medieval and Baroque sculptures and paintings from Lower Austria);
former monastic church (built around 1240); Institute of the English
Ladies (1722-1724); Late Gothic Piarist church (first documented
mention in 1014, restoration from mid-fifteenth century, choir
consecrated in 1457, sanctified again in 1508 after adaptations), with
rich Baroque interior (frescoes and altarpieces by M. J. Schmidt);
former theological college of the Piarists (1636-1641); originally
Gothic or Renaissance town houses, later remodelled in the Baroque
style, located on Hoher Markt square and in the adjacent streets;
former "Freihaeuser", Gozzoburg (12%%sup th/% to 13%%sup th/%
centuries, later adaptations); town hall (core 15%%sup th/% century,
remodelled 1548-1552). - In Stein (first documented as a town in
1072/91, united with K. until 1850, independent since 1938), Late
Gothic/Baroque parish church; Early Gothic church in Foerthof; former
Frauenberg church (around 1380): Late Romanesque/Early Gothic former
church and monastery of the Minorites (13%%sup th/% -15%%sup th/%
century), with frescoes (14%%sup th/% -16%%sup th/% century), today
exhibition centre; town hall (from 1701, restoration of façade
in 1779); Kunsthalle Krems; Goettweigerhof chapel with important Early
Gothic frescoes (1305-1310); men's prison (since 1852; 1839-1848,
former convent of Redemptorist nuns); former town hall (first
documented mention in 1470, until 1701); former toll-house (1536);
Gothic and Renaissance town houses (15%%sup th/% to 17%%sup th/%
centuries); Rehberg castle ruins; Gneixendorf Palace (L. van Beethoven
stayed there in 1826); former Capuchin monastery and church (after
1614) in the suburbs between Krems and Stein.
!Literature
E. Kranner, Krems. Antlitz einer Stadt, 1969; 1000 Jahre
Kunst in Krems an der Donau, exhibition catalogue, 1971;
Oesterreichisches Staedtebuch, vol. IV, part 2, Die Staedte
Niederoesterreichs, 1976; H. Kuehnel, Krems an der Donau, in:
Historischer Staedteatlas, 1991; R. Schweiger, Zauber der Architektur.
Doppelstadt Krems-Stein und Mautern, 1993; H. Kuehnel and F.
Schoenfellner, 1000 Jahre Krems, 1995.
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