Wiener Neustadt#

Wiener Neustadt, Lower Austria, chartered town in the district of Wiener Neustadt, alt. 265 m, pop. 35,134, area 60.97 km2, main municipality in the Steinfeld plain, situated close to the border with the province of Burgenland. - Provincial court, district court, firefighting headquarters, federal police directorate, labour market service, inland revenue office, office of weights, measures and surveying, customs office, labour inspectorate, hospital, regional health and social insurance office, chamber of labour, economic chamber, District Chamber of Agricultural and Allied Workers, prison, Daun, Maximilian and Berchtoldsheim barracks, military air base and Maria-Theresia military academy, Forestry services for torrent and avalanche control, regional construction superintendence office, forestry enterprise of the Austrian Federal Forests, outpatient clinic and day home for handicapped children, probation supervision office, Information and Guidance Centre for Women, school psychological service, environmental advisory office for southern Lower Austria, St. Bernhard arts centre, various institutions run by the Caritas (Fachschule fuer Sozialberufe - school of social work), social guidance centre, counselling centre of the psycho-social services, Lower Austrian social centre for families, centre for marriage, family and life counselling, centre for the auditively challenged, sheltered workshop, Hilfswerk welfare organisation, Kolpinghaus centre, shelter for people in need, Austrian Information Service for Development Aid Policies, New Apostolic Church, Islamic Cultural Union, Regional Industry Museum, city library, town hostel, city theatre, sewage purification plant, Fohlenhof federal stud-farm, Bundes-Oberstufenrealgymnasium secondary school, 2 Bundesgymnasium secondary schools, Bundesrealgymnasium secondary school, Bundesgymnasium and Bundesrealgymnasium fuer Berufstaetige secondary schools at the Theresian Military Academy, Federal Boarding School, commercial academy, upper secondary school of engineering, advanced-level school of fashion and dress-making, advanced-level commercial school, Fachhochschule, adult education centre, conservatory, vocational school of trade and commerce, golf links (at Kleinwolkersdorf), regional headquarters of the Lower Austrian power supply company "Energieversorgung Niederoesterreich AG (EVN)", "Wiener Neustaedter Nachrichten" regional newspaper, airport, waterworks. About 65 % of the 21,186 people in gainful employment work in service industries (1991) (especially trade, personal, social and public services); production: textile industry, metal-processing industry (machine factories, foundries, metalware, fittings, steel construction), chemical industry, cardboard and paperboard production, piano manufactory, plastics industry, concrete mixing and stone-crushing plant, construction industry. Southern Lower Austrian Innovation Centre, technology park in the planning stage. - Founded by Duke Leopold V in 1194. Bishopric from 1469-1785, then transferred to St. Poelten. Enormous increase in population (especially 1880-1910) due to industrialisation and the construction of the Schnellbahn suburban service, 65 % destroyed by bombing 1943-1945 (most heavily damaged Austrian town during World War II due to its production of aeroplanes, tenders, etc. and consequent significance for the arms industry). - Systematic arrangement of gates, monastic and castle buildings on a rectangular ground-plan with grid-system; main square with pergola and town hall. City parish church with late Romanesque core (13th century, "Brauttor" gate 1260) and early Gothic parts (one of the oldest ribbed vaults in Austria), redecorated in late-Gothic style by S. Werpacher in the 15th century, the western part was redecorated in Romanesque style in 1884, interior 17th/18th tomb of Cardinal Klesl, late-Gothic annunciation group and 12 apostle statues by L. Luchsberger. New Convent Church ("Neuklosterkirche"), basilica with nave walls resting on pillars (around 1300), redecorated in the 14th and 15th century, high altar (1698), side altar pieces by F. Solimena (1741), M. Unterberger (1748) and M. Altomonte (1737), tomb of Empress Eleonore of Portugal (1467); New Convent (Neukloster - around 17th-18th century); former church of St. Peter an der Sperr, built by P. Pusika 1450-1475, now exhibition hall with adjoining town museum (1994); former Jesuit church (1737-1743), town archives in the former monastery; former Habsburg castle (2nd half of the 13th century), alterations under Maria Theresia by N. Pacassi and M. Gerl, Theresian Military Academy 1742-1918, largely destroyed in 1945, after its reconstruction, an officers' school since 1952, Georgskirche church, army bishop's church since 1963, burial vault chapel of Emperor Friedrich III, who resided mainly in Wiener Neustadt in the 15th hall church by P. Pusika (1449-1460), with important glass paintings, tomb of Emperor Maximilian I underneath the high altar, wall with Coats of Arms (1453) with a statue of Emperor Friedrich III; former Carmelite church (construction began in 1697), currently used for exhibitions; historical weapons on exhibition in old tower with spiral staircase, a part of the city wall, sections of which date from the Middle Ages; several late-Gothic buildings and town houses with Baroque façades. Renovated Gothic stone column "Spinnerin am Kreuz" (1382-1384); Jewish cemetery.

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