Bad Bleiberg ( sl, Plajberk pri Beljaku) is a

market town A market town is a settlement most common in Europe that obtained by custom or royal charter, in the Middle Ages, a market right, which allowed it to host a regular market; this distinguished it from a village or city. In Britain, small rural ...

in the district of

Villach-Land Bezirk Villach-Land is a district of the state of Carinthia in Austria. Municipalities Towns (''Städte'') are indicated in boldface; market towns (''Marktgemeinden'') in ''italics''; suburbs, hamlets and other subdivisions of a municipality a ...

, in

Carinthia Carinthia (german: Kärnten ; sl, Koroška ) is the southernmost Austrian state, in the Eastern Alps, and is noted for its mountains and lakes. The main language is German. Its regional dialects belong to the Southern Bavarian group. Carin ...

Austria Austria, , bar, Östareich officially the Republic of Austria, is a country in the southern part of Central Europe, lying in the Eastern Alps. It is a federation of nine states, one of which is the capital, Vienna, the most populous ...

. Originally a

mining Mining is the extraction of valuable minerals or other geological materials from the Earth, usually from an ore body, lode, vein, seam, reef, or placer deposit. The exploitation of these deposits for raw material is based on the econom ...

area, especially for

lead Lead is a chemical element with the symbol Pb (from the Latin ) and atomic number 82. It is a heavy metal that is denser than most common materials. Lead is soft and malleable, and also has a relatively low melting point. When freshly cut, ...

(german: Blei), Bad Bleiberg today due to its

hot springs A hot spring, hydrothermal spring, or geothermal spring is a spring produced by the emergence of geothermally heated groundwater onto the surface of the Earth. The groundwater is heated either by shallow bodies of magma (molten rock) or by circ ...

is a

spa town A spa town is a resort town based on a mineral spa (a developed mineral spring). Patrons visit spas to "take the waters" for their purported health benefits. Thomas Guidott set up a medical practice in the English town of Bath, Somerset, B ...

Geography

Bad Bleiberg is situated west of the district's capital

Villach Villach (; sl, Beljak; it, Villaco; fur, Vilac) is the seventh-largest city in Austria and the second-largest in the federal state of Carinthia. It is an important traffic junction for southern Austria and the whole Alpe-Adria region. , the p ...

in a high valley on the northern slope of the Dobratsch (''Villacher Alpe'') massif, the easternmost part of the

Gailtal Alps , ''Drauzug'' , photo=Grosse Sandspitze 1.jpg , photo_size= , photo_caption=Große Sandspitze, the highest peak in the range , country= Austria , subdivision1_type= States , subdivision1= , parent= , geology= Limestone , orogeny=Alpine o ...

mountain range. The municipal area comprises the cadastral communities of Bleiberg proper and Kreuth.

History

King

Henry II of Germany Henry II (german: Heinrich II; it, Enrico II; 6 May 973 – 13 July 1024), also known as Saint Henry the Exuberant, Obl. S. B., was Holy Roman Emperor ("Romanorum Imperator") from 1014. He died without an heir in 1024, and was the last ruler o ...

granted the

Carinthian Carinthia (german: Kärnten ; sl, Koroška ) is the southernmost Austrian state, in the Eastern Alps, and is noted for its mountains and lakes. The main language is German. Its regional dialects belong to the Southern Bavarian group. Carint ...

lands around Villach to the newly created

Diocese of Bamberg The Archdiocese of Bamberg (lat. ''Archidioecesis Bambergensis'') is a diocese of the Roman Catholic Church in Bavaria and is one of 27 Roman Catholic dioceses in Germany. In 2015, 32.9% of the population identified as Catholic, and 15.6% of tho ...

at the

Frankfurt Frankfurt, officially Frankfurt am Main (; Hessian: , " Frank ford on the Main"), is the most populous city in the German state of Hesse. Its 791,000 inhabitants as of 2022 make it the fifth-most populous city in Germany. Located on it ...

synod A synod () is a council of a Christian denomination, usually convened to decide an issue of doctrine, administration or application. The word '' synod'' comes from the meaning "assembly" or "meeting" and is analogous with the Latin word mean ...

of 1 November 1007, together with other estates like Griffen or the Canal Valley around

Tarvisio Tarvisio (German and fur, Tarvis, sl, Trbiž) is a comune in the northeastern part of the autonomous Friuli Venezia Giulia region in Italy. Geography The town is in the Canal Valley (''Val Canale'') between the Carnic Alps and Karawanks rang ...

. When under Emperor Frederick II Bamberg was elevated to a Prince-Bishopric, the territories became ecclesiastical exclaves within the territory of the Carinthian dukes. In 1759 the Bamberg estates were finally acquired by Empress

Maria Theresa Maria Theresa Walburga Amalia Christina (german: Maria Theresia; 13 May 1717 – 29 November 1780) was ruler of the Habsburg dominions from 1740 until her death in 1780, and the only woman to hold the position '' suo jure'' (in her own right) ...

and incorporated into

Habsburg The House of Habsburg (), alternatively spelled Hapsburg in Englishgerman: Haus Habsburg, ; es, Casa de Habsburgo; hu, Habsburg család, it, Casa di Asburgo, nl, Huis van Habsburg, pl, dom Habsburgów, pt, Casa de Habsburgo, la, Domus Hab ...

Carinthia. Bleiberg AK 1908 gegen den Dobratsch

The mine was first mentioned as ''Pleyberg'' in a 1333 deed issued by the Bamberg bishops; it was operated by the Swabian

Fugger The House of Fugger () is a German upper bourgeois family that was historically a prominent group of European bankers, members of the fifteenth- and sixteenth-century mercantile patriciate of Augsburg, international mercantile bankers, and ven ...

family from the late 15th century onwards.

Georgius Agricola Georgius Agricola (; born Georg Pawer or Georg Bauer; 24 March 1494 – 21 November 1555) was a German Humanist scholar, mineralogist and metallurgist. Born in the small town of Glauchau, in the Electorate of Saxony of the Holy Roman Empire ...

described the mining and smelting of lead and

zinc Zinc is a chemical element with the symbol Zn and atomic number 30. Zinc is a slightly brittle metal at room temperature and has a shiny-greyish appearance when oxidation is removed. It is the first element in group 12 (IIB) of the periodi ...

in his 1556 book '' De re metallica''. Mining operations ceased in 1993 for economic reasons, today a tourist mine offers guided underground tours. The current municipality was established in 1850, it received the status of a market town in 1930. When in 1951 a hot spring had flooded an adit, a

public bath Public baths originated when most people in population centers did not have access to private bathing facilities. Though termed "public", they have often been restricted according to gender, religious affiliation, personal membership, and other cr ...

was established and Bleiberg received the official ''Bad'' title of a spa town in 1978.

Politics

Seats in the municipal assembly (''Gemeinderat'') as of 2015 local elections: *

Independent Independent or Independents may refer to: Arts, entertainment, and media Artist groups * Independents (artist group), a group of modernist painters based in the New Hope, Pennsylvania, area of the United States during the early 1930s * Independe ...

List Bad Bleiberg (ULB): 10 *

Social Democratic Party of Austria The Social Democratic Party of Austria (german: Sozialdemokratische Partei Österreichs , SPÖ), founded and known as the Social Democratic Workers' Party of Austria (german: link=no, Sozialdemokratische Arbeiterpartei Österreichs, SDAPÖ) unti ...

(SPÖ): 7 *

Freedom Party of Austria The Freedom Party of Austria (german: Freiheitliche Partei Österreichs, FPÖ) is a right-wing populist and national-conservative political party in Austria. It was led by Norbert Hofer from September 2019 to 1 June 2021.Staff (1 June 2021"Aus ...

(FPö): 1 *

The Greens – The Green Alternative The Greens – The Green Alternative (german: Die Grünen – Die Grüne Alternative, ) is a green political party in Austria. The party was founded in 1986 under the name "Green Alternative" (''Grüne Alternative''), following the merger of the ...

: 1

Twin town

Pradamano Pradamano ( fur, Pradaman) is a town and ''comune'' in Friuli-Venezia Giulia, north-eastern Italy Italy ( it, Italia ), officially the Italian Republic, ) or the Republic of Italy, is a country in Southern Europe. It is located in the mid ...

Italy Italy ( it, Italia ), officially the Italian Republic, ) or the Republic of Italy, is a country in Southern Europe. It is located in the middle of the Mediterranean Sea, and its territory largely coincides with the homonymous geographical ...

Notable people

Oskar Potiorek Oskar Potiorek (20 November 1853 – 17 December 1933) was an officer of the Austro-Hungarian Army, who served as Governor of Bosnia and Herzegovina from 1911 to 1914. He was a passenger in the car carrying Archduke Franz Ferdinand of Austr ...

(1853–1933), Austro-Hungarian army officer

References

{{authority control Cities and towns in Villach-Land District Gailtal Alps Spa towns in Austria