!!!Pöchlarn

Poechlarn, Lower Austria, town in the district of Melk, 
alt. 216 m, pop. 3,523, 
area 17.96 km%%sup 2/%, east of the confluence of the River 
Erlauf and the River Danube, in the middle of the Nibelungengau 
region; ship station, ferry. - Regional health insurance office, 
regional vocational school, refuse composting plant of the Lower 
Austrian institute of environmental protection, waterworks. 2,335 
persons employed (in 1991), mainly industry and trade: glass factory, 
roofing tile factory, plastic window factory, animal feed works, 
concrete block production, market for building materials, central 
storehouse, carriers. - Roman castellum of Arelape (second half of the 
1%%sup st/%  to the 5%%sup th/%  century), first documented 
mention in 832, in the Nibelungenlied (around 1200) as 
"Bechelâren" seat of the legendary margrave Ruediger, 
Vogtei (administrative unit) of the Babenbergs, in 1267 mentioned as 
town, until 1803 in the possession of the diocese of Regensburg; in 
the Middle Ages engaged in the shipment of iron. - Gothic parish 
church, pier hall (1389-1429), remodelled in Baroque style in 1766, 
altar-piece by M. J. Schmidt, Roman stones; Gothic ossuary, today 
a chapel; cemetery chapel; renewed former Gothic church; two towers of 
the medieval fortification still extant; local heritage museum 
(established 1926) in the Welserturm tower (1484); Renaissance houses; 
Poechlarn moated castle (16%%sup th/%  century) with keep, 
reconstructed in the 18%%sup th/%  and early 19%%sup th/% 
 centuries. Exhibition on Oskar Kokoschka in the house where he 
was born; Nibelungen monument.

!Literature
F. Eheim, Heimatbuch der Stadt Poechlarn, 1967; 
Oesterreichisches Staedtebuch vol. IV, part 2, Die Staedte 
Niederoesterr., 1976.


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