Sankt Pölten (;

Central Bavarian Central Bavarian form a subgroup of Bavarian dialects in large parts of Austria and the German state of Bavaria along the Danube river, on the northern side of the Eastern Alps. They are spoken in the ' Old Bavarian' regions of Upper Bavaria ( ...

: ''St. Pödn''), mostly abbreviated to the official name St. Pölten, is the capital and largest city of the

State State may refer to: Arts, entertainment, and media Literature * ''State Magazine'', a monthly magazine published by the U.S. Department of State * ''The State'' (newspaper), a daily newspaper in Columbia, South Carolina, United States * ''Our S ...

Lower Austria Lower Austria (german: Niederösterreich; Austro-Bavarian: ''Niedaöstareich'', ''Niedaestareich'') is one of the nine states of Austria, located in the northeastern corner of the country. Since 1986, the capital of Lower Austria has been Sankt P ...

in northeast Austria, with 55,538 inhabitants as of 1 January 2020. St. Pölten is a city with its own statute (or ''

Statutarstadt In Austrian politics, a statutory city (German: ''Stadt mit eigenem Statut'' or ''Statutarstadt'') is a city that is vested, in addition to its purview as a municipality, with the powers and duties of a district administrative authority. The cit ...

'') and therefore it is both a municipality and a district in the '' Mostviertel''.

Geography

The city lies on the Traisen river and is located north of the Alps and south of the

Wachau The Wachau () is an Austrian valley with a picturesque landscape formed by the Danube river. It is one of the most prominent tourist destinations of Lower Austria, located midway between the towns of Melk and Krems that also attracts "connois ...

. It is part of the ''Mostviertel'', the southwest region of Lower Austria.

Subdistricts

St Pölten is divided into the following subdistricts: Altmannsdorf, Dörfl at Ochsenburg, Eggendorf, Ganzendorf, Hafing, Harland, Hart, Kreisberg, Matzersdorf, Mühlgang, Nadelbach, Oberradlberg, Oberwagram, Oberzwischenbrunn, Ochsenburg, Pengersdorf, Pottenbrunn, Pummersdorf, Ragelsdorf, Ratzersdorf at the Traisen, Reitzersdorf, Schwadorf, Spratzern, St Georgen on the Steinfelde, St Pölten, Stattersdorf, Steinfeld, Teufelhof, Unterradlberg, Unterwagram, Unterzwischenbrunn, Viehofen, Völtendorf, Waitzendorf, Wasserburg, Weitern, Wetzersdorf, Windpassing, Witzendorf, Wolfenberg, Wörth and Zwerndorf.

Transport

The city's main railway station,

St. Pölten Hauptbahnhof St. Pölten Hauptbahnhof is the main railway station at St. Pölten, which is the capital city of the federal state of Lower Austria, located in the north east of Austria. The station is one of the western endpoints of the Verkehrsverbund Ost-Re ...

, is located directly on the West railway of the

ÖBB The Austrian Federal Railways (german: Österreichische Bundesbahnen, formally (lit. "Austrian Federal Railways Holding Stock Company") and formerly the or ''BBÖ''), now commonly known as ÖBB, is the national railway company ...

and is also the terminus of the Leobersdorfer Railway, the Mariazellerbahn, the regional railway to Tulln and the regional railway to Krems. It is at the intersection of the Western Motorway A1 and the Kremser Speedway S33, and is traversed by the Vienna Road B1. St Pölten is a junction of the ''Wieselbus'' bus lines, which provides radial connections between the capital and the different regions of Lower Austria.

In the city

Between 1911 and 1976, a

tram A tram (called a streetcar or trolley in North America) is a rail vehicle that travels on tramway tracks on public urban streets; some include segments on segregated right-of-way. The tramlines or networks operated as public transport ...

line operated in St Pölten. Today, a network of eleven bus lines operates at regular intervals within the city. Every summer, a free tourist train in the city centre connects the ancient parts of the city with the government district.

Climate

History

The oldest part of the city is built on the site of the ancient

Roman Roman or Romans most often refers to: * Rome, the capital city of Italy * Ancient Rome, Roman civilization from 8th century BC to 5th century AD *Roman people, the people of ancient Rome *''Epistle to the Romans'', shortened to ''Romans'', a lett ...

city of Aelium Cetium that existed between the 2nd and the 4th century. In the year 799, it was called ''Treisma''. St Pölten did not become a town until 1050 and officially became a city in 1169. Until 1494 St Pölten was part of the

diocese of Passau The Diocese of Passau is a Roman Catholic diocese in Germany that is a suffragan of the Archdiocese of Munich and Freising.Benedictine , image = Medalla San Benito.PNG , caption = Design on the obverse side of the Saint Benedict Medal , abbreviation = OSB , formation = , motto = (English: 'Pray and Work') , foun ...

monastery was founded in 791. In 1081 it hosted the Augustinian ''Chorherren'' and in 1784 their '' Kollegiatsstift'' closed. Since 1785, this building has hosted the cathedral of St Pölten. The city replaced

Vienna en, Viennese , iso_code = AT-9 , registration_plate = W , postal_code_type = Postal code , postal_code = , timezone = CET , utc_offset = +1 , timezone_DST ...

as the capital of Lower Austria with a resolution by the Lower Austrian parliament on 10 July 1986. The Lower Austrian government has been hosted in St Pölten since 1997. The name St Pölten is derived from

Hippolytus of Rome Hippolytus of Rome (, ; c. 170 – c. 235 AD) was one of the most important second-third century Christian theologians, whose provenance, identity and corpus remain elusive to scholars and historians. Suggested communities include Rome, Palestin ...

. The city was renamed to Sankt Hippolyt, then St Polyt and finally St Pölten.

Politics

Municipal council

The municipal council consists of 42 members and since the municipal elections in 2016 it consists of the following parties: * 26

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) – the mayor and the first vice mayor * 9

Austrian People's Party The Austrian People's Party (german: Österreichische Volkspartei , ÖVP ) is a Christian-democratic and liberal-conservative political party in Austria. Since December 2021, the party has been led provisionally by Karl Nehammer. It is curre ...

(ÖVP) – the second vice mayor * 6

FPÖ 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"A ...

* 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 ...

City's senate

The city's senate consists of 11 members: * SPÖ: Martin Fuhs, Mag. Renate Gamsjäger, Engineer Franz Gunacker, Robert Laimer, Wolfgang Nowak, Mag. Johann Rankl, Mag. Ingrid Heihs * ÖVP: Alfred Neuhauser, Josef Fraberger * FPÖ * Greens: Silvia Buschenreiter

Mayor

On 9 July 2004 the municipal council elected the former senator for culture Mag. Matthias Stadler (

SPÖ 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 ...

) as the new mayor of St Pölten. The first vice mayor is Susanne Kysela (SPÖ); the second vice mayor is Johannes Sassmann (ÖVP). Seal of Sankt Pölten

Coat of arms, colours and seals

The arms'

blazon In heraldry and heraldic vexillology, a blazon is a formal description of a coat of arms, flag or similar emblem, from which the reader can reconstruct the appropriate image. The verb ''to blazon'' means to create such a description. The ...

is silver and azure; on the right a fess gules, on the left a

wolf The wolf (''Canis lupus''; : wolves), also known as the gray wolf or grey wolf, is a large canine native to Eurasia and North America. More than thirty subspecies of ''Canis lupus'' have been recognized, and gray wolves, as popularly un ...

rampant silver langued gules and armed Or. The colours of the city are red and yellow. The seal of the city contains its coat of arms surrounded by the text Landeshauptstadt St. Pölten. The administration's seal of the magistrate also contains the city's coat of arms with the text Magistrat der Stadt St. Pölten.

Economy

As of 15 May 2001, 40,041 people worked in 2,711 companies in the city. 23 of those companies are large-scale enterprises with more than 200 employees each.

Media

Several media companies are based in St Pölten. These are "@cetera", a literary-cultural magazine; "City-Flyer", an online magazine describing the cultural offerings of the city, which is published on paper monthly; "Campus Radio", a radio station from the University of Applied Sciences; "HiT FM", a radio station broadcasting in Lower Austria; "LetHereBeRock", an online youth magazine about the alternative rock scene; '' NÖN'', a Lower Austrian newspaper; the Austrian Broadcasting Corporation for Lower Austria; and the local television channel "P3tv".

Large-scale enterprises

The largest companies based in St Pölten are the furniture producer Leiner, the paper manufacturer Salzer, and the family owned engineering conglomerate

Voith The Voith Group is a German manufacturer of machines for the pulp and paper industry, technical equipment for hydropower plants and drive and braking systems. The family-owned company, which operates worldwide and has its headquarters in Heid ...

Public facilities

Educational facilities

* ''Bundesgymnasium'' and ''Bundesrealgymnasium'' St. Pölten (public gymnasium) * Public educational facility for kindergarten pedagogy and social pedagogy * Public economics school and economics academy * '' Bundesreal- and Bundesoberstufenrealgymnasium'' (BORG) Schulring (public high-level gymnasium) * St. Pölten University of Applied Sciences (fields: computer simulation, media management, social work, telecommunication and media) * Public higher educational facility for professions in economics and school for social professions * Public higher technical educational facility and laboratory (fields: EDP and organisation, electronics, electrical engineering, machine engineering, economic engineering) with

university of applied sciences A university of applied sciences (UAS), nowadays much less commonly called a polytechnic university or vocational university, is an institution of higher education and sometimes research that provides vocational education and grants academic de ...

for machine construction * New Design University (interior architecture and graphics design) * Lower Austrian state academy * Philosophical-theological university *

Folk high school Folk high schools (also ''Adult Education Center'', Danish: ''Folkehøjskole;'' Dutch: ''Volkshogeschool;'' Finnish: ''kansanopisto'' and ''työväenopisto'' or ''kansalaisopisto;'' German: ''Volkshochschule'' and (a few) ''Heimvolkshochschule; ...

* Lower Austrian institute for promotion of economy development (''WIFI'')

Leisure and sports sites

Swimming is available at Aquacity (indoor

swimming pool A swimming pool, swimming bath, wading pool, paddling pool, or simply pool, is a structure designed to hold water to enable Human swimming, swimming or other leisure activities. Pools can be built into the ground (in-ground pools) or built ...

), the St. Pölten outdoor swimming pool and Ratzersdorf Lake (a bathing pond where a

nudist Naturism is a lifestyle of practising non-sexual social nudity in private and in public; the word also refers to the cultural movement which advocates and defends that lifestyle. Both may alternatively be called nudism. Though the two terms ar ...

beach,

beach volleyball Beach volleyball is a team sport played by two teams of two or more players on a sand court divided by a net. Similar to indoor volleyball, the objective of the game is to send the ball over the net and to ground it on the opponent's side of th ...

, and

miniature golf Miniature golf, also known as minigolf, mini-putt, crazy golf, or putt-putt, is an offshoot of the sport of golf focusing solely on the putting aspect of its parent game. The aim of the game is to score the lowest number of points. It is played ...

) are available. For fitness training there is the ''City-Treff - Pueblo'', the ''Lifeline'', the ''Reebok '' and the ''Seepark''. In addition, the city has: *

American Football American football (referred to simply as football in the United States and Canada), also known as gridiron, is a team sport played by two teams of eleven players on a rectangular field with goalposts at each end. The offense, the team wi ...

Club - St. Pölten Invaders *

Badminton Badminton is a racquet sport played using racquets to hit a shuttlecock across a net. Although it may be played with larger teams, the most common forms of the game are "singles" (with one player per side) and "doubles" (with two players p ...

Club *

Golf club A golf club is a club used to hit a golf ball in a game of golf. Each club is composed of a shaft with a grip and a club head. Woods are mainly used for long-distance fairway or tee shots; irons, the most versatile class, are used for a variet ...

St. Pölten * Skittles at the leisure park Megafun *

Miniature golf Miniature golf, also known as minigolf, mini-putt, crazy golf, or putt-putt, is an offshoot of the sport of golf focusing solely on the putting aspect of its parent game. The aim of the game is to score the lowest number of points. It is played ...

at the Tennis-Allround Center *

Model aircraft A model aircraft is a small unmanned aircraft. Many are replicas of real aircraft. Model aircraft are divided into two basic groups: flying and non-flying. Non-flying models are also termed static, display, or shelf models. Aircraft manufactur ...

airport of the ''BSV VOITH'' *

Riding club Riding is a homonym of two distinct English words: From the word ride * In equestrianism, riding a horse * Riding animal, animal bred or trained for riding * Riding hall, building designed for indoor horse riding From Old English ''*þriðing'' ...

St. Pölten-Wagram *

Shooting range A shooting range, firing range, gun range or shooting ground is a specialized facility, venue or field designed specifically for firearm usage qualifications, training, practice or competitions. Some shooting ranges are operated by military ...

of the private ''Schützenkompagnie'' *

Skatepark A skatepark, or skate park, is a purpose-built recreational environment made for skateboarding, BMX, scootering, wheelchairs, and aggressive inline skating. A skatepark may contain half-pipes, handrails, funboxes, vert ramps, stairse ...

Gliding Gliding is a recreational activity and competitive air sport in which pilots fly unpowered aircraft known as gliders or sailplanes using naturally occurring currents of rising air in the atmosphere to remain airborne. The word ''soaring'' is a ...

club St. Pölten St Pölten hosts a primary base of the Lower Austrian state sports school.

Tennis

Every year in the third week of May the ATP tournament takes place in St Pölten. There are multiple local tennis stadiums, including the Arena im Aufeld, the tennis centre Allround, the tennis courts by the local ice sport association 1872, the courts in St. Georgen, the courts at the Ratzersdorfer Pond, the courts in the Lower Austrian state sports school and the courts of the leisure park Megafun.

International relations

Twin towns – Sister cities

St Pölten is twinned with the following cities: * Altoona,

Pennsylvania Pennsylvania (; ( Pennsylvania Dutch: )), officially the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, is a state spanning the Mid-Atlantic, Northeastern, Appalachian, and Great Lakes regions of the United States. It borders Delaware to its southeast, ...

, USA *

Brno Brno ( , ; german: Brünn ) is a city in the South Moravian Region of the Czech Republic. Located at the confluence of the Svitava and Svratka rivers, Brno has about 380,000 inhabitants, making it the second-largest city in the Czech Republic ...

, Czech Republic *

Clichy Clichy may refer to: In Paris Region, France * Canton of Clichy, an administrative division of the Hauts-de-Seine department, in northern France * Clichy-sous-Bois, commune in the Seine-Saint-Denis ''département'' * Clichy, Hauts-de-Seine, comm ...

Hauts-de-Seine Hauts-de-Seine (; ) is a département in the Île-de-France region, Northern France. It covers Paris's western inner suburbs. It is bordered by Paris, Seine-Saint-Denis and Val-de-Marne to the east, Val-d'Oise to the north, Yvelines to the west ...

Île-de-France The Île-de-France (, ; literally "Isle of France") is the most populous of the eighteen regions of France. Centred on the capital Paris, it is located in the north-central part of the country and often called the ''Région parisienne'' (; en, Pa ...

, France * Heidenheim,

Baden-Württemberg Baden-Württemberg (; ), commonly shortened to BW or BaWü, is a German state () in Southwest Germany, east of the Rhine, which forms the southern part of Germany's western border with France. With more than 11.07 million inhabitants across a ...

, Germany *

Kurashiki is a historic city located in western Okayama Prefecture, Japan, sitting on the Takahashi River, on the coast of the Inland Sea. As of March 31, 2017, the city has an estimated population of 483,576 and a population density of 1,400 persons per ...

, Japan *

Nyíregyháza Nyíregyháza (, sk, Níreďháza) is a city with county rights in northeastern Hungary and the county capital of Szabolcs-Szatmár-Bereg. With a population of 118,001, it is the seventh-largest city in Hungary and the second largest in ...

, Hungary *

Wuhan Wuhan (, ; ; ) is the capital of Hubei Province in the People's Republic of China. It is the largest city in Hubei and the most populous city in Central China, with a population of over eleven million, the ninth-most populous Chinese city a ...

, China

Culture and objects of interest

Theatres

* Lower Austrian state theatre * Bühne im Hof * Festspielhaus St. Pölten

Museums

* Diocese museum St. Pölten * Museum im Hof * Lower Austrian state museum * Lower Austrian documentation institute for modern art * Private museum "Wilhelmsburger ornament and utensil dishes" * City museum St. Pölten

Others

* Repertory theatre Cinema Paradiso * Former

synagogue A synagogue, ', 'house of assembly', or ', "house of prayer"; Yiddish: ''shul'', Ladino: or ' (from synagogue); or ', "community". sometimes referred to as shul, and interchangeably used with the word temple, is a Jewish house of wor ...

* ''Klangturm'' (tower), the city's landmark * ''Stadtsäle'' (public event hall) * Youth culture hall ''frei.raum'' * VAZ (Veranstaltungszentrum, event-centre) * ''Drunter & Drüber'' (≈"haywire"; "higgledy-piggledy"; "topsy-turvy"), a pub in the inner city * Tonkünstler Orchestra * Business Center Niederösterreich * ''Apotheke zum goldenen Löwen'' (pharmacy since 1545), oldest shop in town, famous

baroque The Baroque (, ; ) is a style of architecture, music, dance, painting, sculpture, poetry, and other arts that flourished in Europe from the early 17th century until the 1750s. In the territories of the Spanish and Portuguese empires including ...

facing

Regular events

* ATP tennis tournament * Cinema at the cathedral (''Film am Dom'') * Capital city festival * International culture and film festival * Parliament festival * St Pölten festival weeks "''Klangweile''" * St Pölten ''Höfefest'' * FM4 Frequency Festival * Pro Golf Tour tournament

Notable people

* Martin Fiala, composer :de:Martin Fiala (Komponist) *

Jörg Demus Jörg Wolfgang Demus (2 December 1928 – 16 April 2019) was an Austrian classical pianist who appeared internationally and made many recordings. He was also a composer and a lecturer at music academies. In composition and playing, he focused on ...

, (1928–2019), pianist * Walter Graf (1903–1982), musicologist *

Alfred Gusenbauer Alfred Gusenbauer (born 8 February 1960) is an Austrian politician who until 2008 spent his entire professional life as an employee of the Social Democratic Party of Austria (SPÖ) or as a parliamentary representative. He headed the SPÖ from 20 ...

, (born 1960), politician (SPÖ) and former chancellor of Austria * Andreas Lattner, computer scientist *

Erwin Leder Erwin Alois Robert Leder (born 30 July 1951 in St. Pölten, Lower Austria, Austria) is an Austrian actor. He is best known for his role as Chief Mechanic Johann in ''Das Boot'', a 1982 feature film directed by Wolfgang Petersen about a mission ...

, (born 1951), actor (''

Das Boot ''Das Boot'' (, English: "The Boat") is a 1981 West German war film written and directed by Wolfgang Petersen, produced by Günter Rohrbach, and starring Jürgen Prochnow, Herbert Grönemeyer, and Klaus Wennemann. It has been exhibited both as ...

'', ''

Underworld The underworld, also known as the netherworld or hell, is the supernatural world of the dead in various religious traditions and myths, located below the world of the living. Chthonic is the technical adjective for things of the underwo ...

'') * Karl Österreicher (1923–1995), conductor, music educator *

Julius Raab Julius Raab (29 November 1891 – 8 January 1964) was a conservative Austrian politician, who served as Federal Chancellor of Austria from 1953 to 1961. Raab steered Allied-occupied Austria to independence, when he negotiated and signed the Austri ...

, (1891-1964), conservative politician, chancellor of Austria 1953-1961 * Mario Ranieri, DJ and producer *

Bernhard Wicki Bernhard Wicki (28 October 1919 – 5 January 2000) was an Austrian actor and film director. Life and career Wicki studied in the city of Breslau such topics as art history, history and German literature. In 1938, he transferred to the d ...

, actor and director *

Lolita ''Lolita'' is a 1955 novel written by Russian-American novelist Vladimir Nabokov. The novel is notable for its controversial subject: the protagonist and unreliable narrator, a middle-aged literature professor under the pseudonym Humbert Hum ...

, singer and actress * ''Dom'' Manuel, Portuguese Infant, younger brother of King John V, lived in St Pölten for some time in the 1730s *

Oliver Stummvoll Oliver Stummvoll (born 13 November 1995) is an Austrian fashion model. He is best known for being the winner of cycle 6 of '' Austria's Next Topmodel''. ''Austria's Next Topmodel'' Stummvoll defeated seventeen fellow contestants, including hi ...

, model * The Clairvoyants, magician-mentalist duo *

Heinrich Maier Heinrich Maier (; 16 February 1908 – 22 March 1945) was an Austrian Roman Catholic priest, pedagogue, philosopher and a member of the Austrian resistance, who was executed as the last victim of Hitler's régime in Vienna. The resistance gr ...

(very important resistance fighter against Nazi Germany), attended gymnasium school here

Literature

* Klaus Nüchtern: Kleines Gulasch in St. Pölten (German): * Thomas Karl: St. Pölten - Ein Wandel durch die Zeit (German): * Otto Kapfinger, Michaela Steiner: St. Pölten neu (German):

References

External links

* * {{DEFAULTSORT:Sankt Polten Austrian state capitals Cities and towns in Lower Austria