Weitra
Weitra is a small town in the district of Gmünd in the Austrian state of Lower Austria. It is located within the rural Waldviertel region on the upper Lainsitz river, the municipality consists of the Katastralgemeinden Brühl, Großwolfgers, Reinprechts, Spital, St. Wolfgang, Walterschlag and Wetzles. A first castle at Weitra was established in 1201 by the Austrian noble Hadmar II of Kuenring, holder of Dürnstein castle, where King Richard the Lionheart had been imprisoned in winter 1192/93. Ottokar II was defeated by the Habsburg king Rudolph I of Germany at the 1278 Battle on the Marchfeld, the fortress on the Bohemian border was seized by the Hussites as well as by Hungarian troops under Matthias Corvinus in 1486. In 1581, Emperor Rudolf II enfeoffed Weitra to his chamberlain Wolf Rumpf, in 1607, Count Frederick IV of Fürstenberg-Heiligenberg, who had married Rumpfs widow, inherited the fief. During the Thirty Years War, the castle was attacked by Swedish forces under General Lennart Torstenson in 1645.
The comital House of House of Fürstenberg held Weitra until the Revolutions of 1848, the members of the Fürstenberg-Weitra cadet branch left a Renaissance castle erected on mediæval foundations, which was rebuilt in a Baroque design. The castle was restored by the House of Fürstenberg in 1994, beside its historic textile industry, Weitra is known as the oldest beer-producing site in Austria with several breweries documented since the 14th century. In 1903, the town received access to a gauge railway line to Gmünd. After World War II, the economy suffered from the towns location near the Iron Curtain. Since 1959, Weitra houses a garrison of the Austrian Armed Forces, alois Hitler lived in Spital, raised by Johann Nepomuk Hiedler after he was abandoned by his mother as a five-year-old. Ludwig and Maria Knapp, owners of a sawmill and a farm in Weitra
Wiener Neustadt
Wiener Neustadt is a city located south of Vienna, in the state of Lower Austria, in north-east Austria. It is a city and the seat of the district administration of Wiener Neustadt-Land. The area once belonged to the County of Pitten, which had inherited by Margrave Ottokar III of Styria in 1158. After the dynasty of the Otakars became extinct with the death of his son Ottokar IV, in 1241, a small Mongol squadron raided Neustadt during the Mongol invasion of Europe but was repulsed by Duke Friederich and his knights. Wiener Neustadt, meaning more or less New Vienna, gained important privileges given to the city in order to enable it to prosper. It remained a part of Styria, which after the 1278 Battle on the Marchfeld fell to the House of Habsburg and in 1379 became a constituent duchy of Inner Austria. In the 15th century, Wiener Neustadt experienced a population boom and his wife, Eleanor of Portugal, died in Wiener Neustadt in 1467. The Wappenwand at the castle displays the coats of arms of his possessions in the middle.
His son Maximilian I maintained his court in Wiener Neustadt and is buried here at St. Georges Cathedral. The town also had a significant Jewish commune with Rabbi Israel Isserlin as its most notable member, habsburgs long-time rival King Matthias Corvinus of Hungary conquered the city in August 1487 after having laid siege to it for two years. According to legend he dedicated the magnificent Corvinus Cup to the inhabitants after his victory, Maximilian I managed to reconquer his native city in 1490. During the 16th century, Wiener Neustadt lost its status as imperial residence, however, it still fulfilled its function as bulwark against the Turks and the Kuruc. In 1751 the city received attention when Empress Maria Theresa of Austria decided to dedicate the First Military Academy. In 1752, the Theresian Military Academy took up its operations, in 1768, Wiener Neustadt was destroyed by an earthquake that damaged the castle, which was rebuilt using plans made by the architect Nicolò Pacassi. In 1785, Emperor Joseph II of Habsburg transferred the see of the Wiener Neustadt diocese to Sankt Pölten, in the 19th century the city became an industrial town, especially after the opening of the Austrian Southern Railway in 1841.
In 1909, the first official Austrian airfield was inaugurated north of the city and it served as a training ground for the flight pioneers Igo Etrich, Karl Illner and Adolf Warchalowski, who conducted their tests there. Bombing operations such as Operation Pointblank left only 18 of 4,000 buildings undamaged, the average monthly temperatures are generally cool, with summer months reaching 21–26 °C and winter months reaching a few degrees above freezing in the daytime. The Late-Romanesque Dom, consecrated in 1279 and cathedral from 1469 to 1785, the choir and transept, in Gothic style, are from the 14th century
Cities and districts (Bezirke) of Lower Austria