!!!Mühlviertel

Muehlviertel Region (officially: Muehlkreis), Upper Austria, mountain 
region which was not settled until relatively recently, north of the 
Danube between Jochenstein and Strudengau (named after the River 
Grosse Muehl). Bounded in the east by the Lower Austrian Waldviertel 
region, in the south by the Danube, in the west by Bavaria, and in the 
north by Bohemia. The fertile plain in the southeast is called  
Machland (originally "Riedmark"). Geologically, the Muehlviertel is 
the oldest landscape of Upper Austria and belongs to the  Bohemian 
Massif (Austrian Granite Plateau). River valleys with deep ravines at 
their confluence with the Danube (Muehlsenke, Haselgraben and upper 
Rodltal valley and Feldaistsenke depressions) divide the Muehlviertel, 
whose southern parts from west to east along the Danube are called 
Passauer, Linzer and Greiner Wald. The torso plain, which is deeply 
intersected by Danube tributaries and about 500 m high at its southern 
edge, rises in big steps up to over 800 m in the north. It merges into 
the elevation bulge (Bohemian Forest, Ploeckenstein mountain 
1,379 m), the European main water shed and the Czech border. 
Small settlements (Weiler) and block fields along the ancient salt 
road to Bohemia, in the Feldaistsenke depression, and in the west, 
i.e. around Rohrbach, nucleated villages with strip-fields can still 
be found; elsewhere scattered settlements prevail, which are replaced 
by wood hides at the edge of the northern boundary forest. The 
Muehlviertel region is also characterised by several types of 
farmhouses: in the settlements cleared in the late Middle Ages by the 
boundary forest of the Muehlviertel, the "Streckhof" and "Hakenhof" 
types dominate, whereas in other parts the Muehlviertel, "Dreiseithof" 
and "Vierseithof" farmhouses prevail, replaced by the "Vierkanthof" in 
the southern part of the districts Perg and Urfahr. - Castles and 
castle ruins: Falkenstein on the Ranna river, Sprinzenstein on the 
Kleine Muehl river, Neuhaus, Puernstein and Piberstein on the Grosse 
Muehl river, Oberwallsee on the Pesenbach stream, Ottensheim on the 
Danube, Rottenegg, Lichtenhang, Lobenstein and Waxenberg at the Rodl 
river, Weinberg, Reichenstein, Schwertberg, Dornach, Prandegg and 
Freistadt on the Aist river, Klam, Innerstein and Klingenberg on the 
Klambach stream, Sarmingstein on the Sarmingbach stream. Main villages 
and towns: Rohrbach in the west; Freistadt in the east; and 
Kefermarkt, where a carved Gothic altar is a major attraction for art 
lovers. Sandl, which has a glass painting museum, was a centre of 
glass painting (verre eglomise); the Muehlviertel Heimathaus, a local 
museum in Freistadt, houses the biggest collection of glass paintings 
in Austria - Until the 1950s flax cultivation was the basis of an 
old-established linen industry in the upper Muehlviertel; the textile 
industry has been continuously reduced in the last decades. The former 
weaver's market town of Haslach an der Muehl is still a centre of 
textile production today; the village of Helfenberg is one of many 
villages with weaving mills along the Muehlviertel weaver's route. Hop 
cultivation has a long tradition (1880 cultivated area of 
1,000 hectares, hop cultivation stopped after World War II, 
started again in the 1960s, 1990 again up to 104 hectares). The 
Muehlviertel is also famous for its breweries (Freistadt, Grein, 
Schlaegl, etc.). The region is largely agricultural; the whole 
district of Rohrbach is a hill farming area (zone 1); in the district 
of Freistadt about 95 % of farmers are hill farmers, half of the 
agricultural enterprises lie in zone 3 with unfavourable climatic 
conditions (cultivation of rye, spring barley, oats, silage maize and 
green maize, about 60 % of the cultivable area is grassland and 
cultivated pastures). In the district of Perg one third of 
agricultural enterprises are located in a favourable area along the 
Danube (cultivation of grain, maize and lately also alternative 
cultures with soya, etc.). In recent decades the number of 
agricultural enterprises has been decreasing, many being run on a 
part-time basis, whereas commuting to Linz has been increasing. - 
Economic activity is limited, and small and medium-sized commercial 
and industrial enterprises dominate. The district of Perg has 
important industrial enterprises (Manner, Engel Maschinenbau and 
Poschacher Company); granite quarry at Mauthausen, granite works in 
Freistadt and Aigen; tourism has increasingly become an important and 
promising economic factor ("quality tourism"). Being a structurally 
weak region, two thirds of the Muehlviertel is classified as 
development area class 5b according to EU regulations. In 1994 the 
Euroregion Bavarian Forest/Bohemian Forest/Muehlviertel was founded.

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The oldest archaeological finds of the Muehlviertel date back to the 
Hallstatt period. Excavations in Mitterkirchen between 1981-1990, 
uncovered a graveyard with 80 graves, more than 900 vessels and 
numerous other grave goods as well as ruins of a settlement from 
around 700 B.C. (open air museum of prehistory). In Roman times the 
Muehlviertel was a sparsely inhabited primeval wood. When the 
Bavarians settled along the Danube, most areas of the Muehlviertel 
became part of their duchy (from the middle of the 6%%sup th/%  
century), then became Babenberg property; they latter acquired large 
estates between the Danube and the Bohemian Forest; in 1180 the 
Babenbergs also acquired the western Muehlviertel. The main part of 
the Muehlviertel was not cleared until the high and late Middle Ages. 
The region was especially important for transit trade between Upper 
Austria and Bohemia (especially salt and iron). The  Railway, 
Horse-drawn from Linz to Budweis was built along the old salt route 
across the Muehlviertel in 1832 as the first railway on the European 
continent. During the National Socialist  July Putsch of 1934 a 
vanguard of the "Austrian Legion" attempted to cross the 
German-Austrian border near  Kollerschlag. In the National Socialist 
era the largest  Concentration Camp on Austrian territory was built at 
Mauthausen. During the Allied occupation, 1945-1955, the Muehlviertel 
as a part of the Soviet occupied zone, was administratively separately 
from the rest of Upper Austria (with Urfahr as its administrative 
centre).

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The Muehlviertel is a clearly defined and characteristic part of the 
province of Upper Austria, comprising the political districts of 
Rohrbach, Urfahr-Umgebung, Freistadt and Perg (total area of 
3,082 km%%sup 2/% with a population of 246.000, 1991) as well as 
the part of the town area of Linz lying north of the Danube (Urfahr 
with Poestlingberg hill).

!Literature
B. Ulm and W. Hofstadler, Das Muehlviertel, seine 
Kunstwerke, historische Lebens- und Siedlungsformen, 1971; E. Merl, 
Besatzungszeit im Muehlviertel anhand der Entwicklung im politischen 
Bezirk Freistadt, 1980; C. Honeder, Situation der Klein- und 
Mittelbetriebe in benachteiligten Regionen, insbesondere im 
Muehlviertel, master´s thesis, Linz 1990; B. Heindl, 
Textil-Landschaft Muehlviertel: mit einem Reisebegleiter durch die 
Muehlviertler Weberstrasse, 1992; J. Kramer (ed.), Das Muehlviertel in 
seinen Sagen: Vom beschriebenen Taennling, 1992.


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