Millstatt

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Millstatt


Country	Austria
State	Carinthia
District	Spittal an der Drau
Population	3,351 (2001)
Area	57.81 km²
Population density	57.97 /km²
Elevation	611 m
Coordinates	46°48′ N 13°35′ E
Postal code	9872
Area code	4766
Licence plate code	SP
Mayor	Josef Pleikner (ÖVP)

Millstatt (seen from the east)

Millstatt is a market town in Carinthia, Austria. Within the Central Eastern Alps it is situated on a peninsula on the northern shore of the lake Millstätter See, in the district of Spittal an der Drau. The traditional health resort and Spa town is known for its former Benedictine abbey, founded about 1070. The municipality of Millstatt also contains the cadastral villages Obermillstatt, Matzelsdorf and Laubendorf.

1 History
2 Sights
3 Twin towns
4 External links

[edit] History

While the oldest archaeological artifacts found in the area date back to the Neolithic, the name "Millstatt" may refer to the Celtic expression "mils" meaning mountain stream or brook. The Celts entered this region from the 5th century BC onwards, their kingdom Noricum came under control of the Roman Empire in 16 BC. During the Migration Period in the 6th century Slavic tribes settled here in the principality of Karantania, which became a march of Bavaria and the Frankish Empire in the late 8th century.

Millstatt monastery

About 1070 the Bavarian Count Palatine Aribo II and his brother Poto established a Benidictine monastery in Millstatt including a donation of extensive landed property around the lake and estates in Salzburg and Friuli. Although no document is saved the first monks probably descended from Hirsau Abbey. While the Counts of Gorizia, Ortenburg and Cilli held the office of a Vogt protector the convent included up to 150 brothers, who made Millstatt a cultural centre of Upper Carinthia and left a famous codex - the Millstatt manuscript - in Middle High German language from around 1200. The decline of the monastery in consequence of economic and disciplinary difficulties led to its abolition by Pope Paul II in 1469.

Emperor Frederick III of Habsburg, by this time Vogt of Millstatt, had urged on this decision for the sake of his foundation of the knightly order of St. George to which he handed over the monastery and its estates on May 14 1469. The order was meant to serve as a protector against the increasing attacks of the Ottoman Empire, but the very few knights didn't succeed and the area was devastated by the Turks several times between 1473 and 1483. After the death of Emperor Maximilian I in 1519 the disbandment of the order began until its final abolition in 1598.

Millstatt about 1680

Meanwhile the Reformation had spread throughout Carinthia and the majority of the population had turned Protestant. Ferdinand II of Habsburg, regent of Inner Austria and later Holy Roman Emperor intended to exterminate Protestantism in his hereditary lands and therefore furnished the Graz Jesuit College with the benefit of the Millstatt monastery. From 1598 onwards the Jesuits pushed the Counter-Reformation by convincing as well as forcing the local inhabitants to return to the Catholic belief. The history of the monastery came to an end, when the Jesuit order was suppressed by Pope Clement XIV in 1773.

Afterwards Millstatt fell into maninglessness until from about 1870 forth it developed to a fashionable summer resort for the nobility and the wealthy bourgeoisie of the Austro-Hungarian Empire.

[edit] Sights

Monastery church

Beneath the market stand the extensive buildings of the former Benedictine monastery with its four massive Renaissance towers situated betweeen the church at the highest point in the north and, near the shore of the lake, the former knightly palace of the order of St. George finished in 1499.