Purkersdorf#

Purkersdorf, Lower Austria, town in the district of Wien-Umgebung, alt. 246 m, pop. 6,413 (pop. in 1981: 5,147), area 30.25 km2, summer holiday resort (47,448 overnight stays in 1992) and residential district in the Wiental valley situated west of Vienna. District court, branch offices of the district commission, employment services, Economic Chamber, Protestant seminary, multi-purpose complex, library, hydro-electric power plant run by the City of Vienna; forestry enterprise of the Oesterreichische Bundesforste AG (Austrian Federal Forests); approximately 62 % of the gainfully employed inhabitants (1991: 2,130) work in the service sector (primarily in commercial enterprises), production of electronic components and packaging materials, large-scale printing shop, workshop for railway construction machinery. - First documented mention around 1125-1135 as "Purchartesdorf"; from 1938 to 1954 it was incorporated into the City of Vienna and has been an independent municipality since 1954: City charter in 1966. - Parish church with Gothic and Baroque elements; castle (formerly with moat), redone in the 17th and 18th centuries; post station dating from the early classical period (1796) with façade reliefs; summer palace of the Fuerstenberg house with Renaissance elements; sanatorium "Westend", most significant construction of J. Hoffmann (1906) in Austria.

Literature#