Villach#

Villach, Carinthia, chartered town in the district of Villach, alt. 501 m, pop. 54,640, area 134.82 km2, second-largest town in Carinthia, lying at the foot of Dobratsch Mountain at the confluence of the rivers Gail and Drau/Drava; important road and railway junction; spa town, Warmbad Villach medicinal bath (thermal springs containing radon, 28-30° C) in the cadastral municipality of Judendorf; wharf (Drau shipping company). - District Commission, district court, district command of the rural police (gendarmerie), district school inspectorate, federal police headquarters, Henselkaserne, Lutschonigkaserne and Rohr-Kaserne army barracks, forestry office (regulation of mountain torrents, avalanche break structures), water administration and road construction offices, district office of the agricultural authority, St. Ulrich bridge administration office, employment services, inland revenue office, office of weights, measures and surveying, customs office, office of the Economic Chamber, office of the Chamber of Labour, office of the Chamber of Agriculture and Forestry, office of the regional health insurance agency, hospital, sanatoria, centre for social services and counselling, office offering assistance to foreigners, Kolpinghaus centre, probation office, Protestant youth hostel, Catholic youth and education centre, schools: Fachhochschule, 2 Bundesgymnasium and one Bundesrealgymnasium secondary schools, Bundesgymnasium secondary school for employed persons, commercial academy, advanced-level commercial school, advanced-level school for crafts and trades, upper secondary school of engineering, advanced-level school for tourism, vocational schools for business and commerce, vocational preparatory school; Austrian Information Service for Development Policy (OeIE), city library by the Chamber of Labour, job information centre, Vocational Training Institute of the Austrian Federation of Trade Unions (BFI), adult education centre, multipurpose hall, public gardens, congress centre, Villach theatre studio, motor vehicles museum, ornithological station for predatory birds (Landskron castle ruins), ice rink, summer toboggan course, St. Martin multipurpose sports hall; spa centre with therapy station at the thermal baths, therapy centre with thermal spring pool, congress centre, golf course; ORF (Austrian radio and television) transmitting station on Dobratsch mountain, gasworks, waterworks, regional headquarters of KELAG, Oesterreichische Fernwaerme Ges. m. b. H. (district heating company with 7 plants), district heating plant Villach, river power station Villach (built 1983, 24.6 megawatt). Of the 29,221 gainfully employed persons (figures from 1991), around 70% work in the service sector (mainly personal, social and public services, wholesale and retail trade, transport); summer and spa tourism (1,147,109 overnight stays in 1992); electrotechnical and electrical industries (computer chips), chemical industry, food and beverages industry, building and construction trade, wood processing; - During the Roman Era there was a road station ("Santicum") in Villach in late Antiquity, Villach had a castellet with an early Christian cult building, documented mention in 878 ("pons Uillah"), documented as a town in 1240, under ownership of the diocese of Bamberg from 1007 to 1759, acquired by Austria, destroyed by earthquakes in 1348 and 1690. Important woodcarving and painting workshop ( Thomas von Villach), at its economic peak in the late 15th and in the 16th centuries owing to trade and mining, from 1864 renewed economic upswing owing to railway construction, very severely damaged during the Second World War, in 1973 extension of the town borders to Lakes Faak and Ossiach. - Late Gothic parish church of the provincial capital with late Gothic portals, St. Christopher fresco (15th century) by Thomas von Villach on the chancel wall, high altar with rich Rococo carvings and late Gothic crucifix (1502), graves from the late Gothic and Renaissance, Renaissance pulpit; late Baroque pilgrimage church at Heiligenkreuz (1726-1738) with Baroque interior; town parish churches: Trinity church (1967), St. Martin church (probably 979, re-erected after it collapsed in 1962, wooden relief of a Madonna of Mercy, around 1510), St. Nikolai church (Gothic Revival 1892/93); Gothic St. John church; former castle (16th - 17th century); new town hall (1951-1953) replacing the old one (in the former Khevenhueller Palace) which was destroyed in 1944, town museum (in Crusiz Palace, 16th century, façade from 1873, Renaissance portal moved to museum in 1971, old town walls with reconstructed defensive passage along top of wall, archaeological collection, samples of medieval panel painting); some houses on the main square with Gothic central elements, some of them from the 16th - 17th century; numerous courtyards with Renaissance column arcades (e.g. Paracelsushof); Holy Trinity column (1606, extended in 1713); Moertenegg palace (2nd half of the 16th century), Werthenau palace (around 1625); Federaun and Landskron castle ruins. In the town area, parish church of St. Rupprecht (Romanesque core) with late Gothic vault and frescoes, extended in the 18th century; parish church of St. Leonhard with Gothic chancel (rest dated 1947), cycle of frescoes (around 1380), Baroque statues; St. Magdalen filial church (around 1800) with Baroque altar; Maria Gail parish and pilgrimage church, former chancel tower church from the 15th century with frescoes and winged altar-piece (around 1520); filial churches in Obere Fellach and Oberschuett (altars from the 18th century); Romanesque filial church near the ruins of castle Landskron, Gothic winged altar-piece (16th century).

Literature#