!!!Pest

Plague: During the Middle Ages Austria was often afflicted with 
epidemics, the plague being the most dangerous one. Plague years were 
888, 1006-1009, 1312/13, 1337, 1370, 1381, 1410/11, 1435, 1521, 1529, 
1563, 1570, 1586 and 1691, the plague epidemic of 1349 claimed a 
particularly large number of victims, 1541 (when one-third of the 
Viennese population died), 1588, 1679 (when 12,000 people died in 
Vienna, "Lieber  Augustin") and 1713/14 (death toll of 9,000 
in Vienna). The Austrian  Military Border was the first successful 
cordon sanitaire against the spread of the plague.

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Works of art, popular beliefs and customs are evidence of how strongly 
the plague influenced the mentality and actions of the people; in 
Austria, patrons of plague sufferers were Saint Sebastian, Rochus, 
Rosalia, the Holy Trinity, and others; amulets (coins: 
Benediktuspfennig, Valentinkreuzer), pilgrimages (e.g. to Alkoven), 
plague images (e.g. the large painting of 1483 in the Graz Cathedral), 
plague crosses and leaves and  Plague Monuments as well as passion 
plays and traditional plague processions (in Schoeder, Murau and 
Knittelfeld) were very popular.  Saint Charles's Church in Vienna was 
built in fulfilment of a vow by Emperor Karl VI during the plague 
of 1713.

!Literature
P. Heitz, Pestblaetter des 15. Jahrhunderts, 1901; K. 
Clement, Die Pest im Volksglauben, doctoral thesis, Graz 1950; K. 
Bergdolt, Der schwarze Tod in Europa, 1994.


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