!!!Mauthausen

Mauthausen, Upper Austria, market town in the district of Perg, alt. 
265 m, pop. 4,403, area 13.98 km%%sup 2/%, situated on the 
north bank of the River Danube right opposite the confluence of the 
River Enns and the Danube, on the border to Lower Austria. Bridge 
crossing the Danube, landing stage for ships cruising the Danube. - 
District court, road works agency, transformer station at Reiferdorf, 
waterworks; plastics works, brickworks, construction of halls, timber 
processing, construction industry, branch of a large Austrian chain 
trading in agricultural products, machinery, building materials etc. 
(Lagerhaus), DIY store etc. Mauthausen constitutes a popular 
destination for day trippers. - During the early Middle Ages ships had 
to pay a toll for cruising the Danube at Mauthausen. Medieval centre 
for salt trading. During the period of the Nazi regime a  
Concentration Camp (1938-1945; 335,000 prisoners) was situated three 
kilometres north-west of Mauthausen. The camp has been opened to the 
public in order to document the horrors of the regime and commemorate 
ist victims. Italian war cemetery (for Italian soldiers who died 
during World War I); closed granite quarries (provided cobble-stones 
for some of the streets in Vienna). - Late Gothic parish church 
(1490-1500), hall church with a rib vaulting, high altar (1708) with 
an altar-piece painted by M. J. Schmidt (1796/97), Late Gothic 
crucifix (1520); Romanesque charnel house, St. Barbara Chapel, 
frescoes created during the first half of the 13%%sup th/%  century; 
market fountain (1716); pillory (1583); Pragstein Palace, situated on 
a small island in the River Danube, construction began in 1491, 
rectangular building, keel-shaped on the side facing the Danube to 
prevent the water from crashing against the walls in case of floods, 
completed in the second half of the 16%%sup th/%  century, now houses 
the Museum of Local History.

!Literature
J. Mayr, Geschichte des Marktes Mauthausen, 1908 and 1974; 
Marktgemeinde Mauthausen (ed.), Heimatbuch Mauthausen, 1984.


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