Dunkelsteinerwald is a market municipality with 2,289 inhabitants in the district Melk in

Lower Austria Lower Austria ( , , abbreviated LA or NÖ) is one of the nine states of Austria, located in the northeastern corner of the country. Major cities are Amstetten, Lower Austria, Amstetten, Krems an der Donau, Wiener Neustadt and Sankt Pölten, which ...

Austria Austria, formally the Republic of Austria, is a landlocked country in Central Europe, lying in the Eastern Alps. It is a federation of nine Federal states of Austria, states, of which the capital Vienna is the List of largest cities in Aust ...

Geography

Dunkelsteinerwald lies in the

Mostviertel ''Mostviertel'' (; English: Most (wine), Most'' Quarter') is the southwestern quarter of the four quarters of Lower Austria (the northeast state of the 9 states in Austria). It is bordered on the north by the Danube and to the south and west ...

in Lower Austria. The surface of the market municipality covers 54.19 square kilometers. 46.73 percent of the area is wooded. The municipality includes the

cadastral A cadastre or cadaster ( ) is a comprehensive recording of the real estate or real property's metes and bounds, metes-and-bounds of a country.Jo Henssen, ''Basic Principles of the Main Cadastral Systems in the World,'/ref> Often it is represente ...

districts of Eckartsberg, Gansbach, Gerolding, Geroldinger Wald, Häusling, Heitzing, Hessendorf, Himberg, Hohenwarth, Kicking,

Kochholz Kochholz is a settlement in the municipality of Dunkelsteinerwald in Melk District, Lower Austria in northeastern Austria Austria, formally the Republic of Austria, is a landlocked country in Central Europe, lying in the Eastern Alps. I ...

, Krapfenberg, Lanzing, Lerchfeld, Lottersberg, Mauer bei Melk, Neuhofen, Nölling, Ohnreith, Pfaffing, Thal, Umbach und Ursprung.

History

In the antiquity the area was part of the

Roman province The Roman provinces (, pl. ) were the administrative regions of Ancient Rome outside Roman Italy that were controlled by the Romans under the Roman Republic and later the Roman Empire. Each province was ruled by a Roman appointed as Roman g ...

Noricum Noricum () is the Latin name for the kingdom or federation of tribes that included most of modern Austria and part of Slovenia. In the first century AD, it became a province of the Roman Empire. Its borders were the Danube to the north, R ...

. Lying in the Austrian heartland of Lower Austria, the place took part in the eventful history of Austria.

Inhabitant development

After the result of the census of 2001, there were 2289 inhabitants. In 1991, the market municipality had 2025 inhabitants, up from 1941 in 1981 and 1911 in 1971.

Politics

The mayor of the market municipality is Franz Penz from the christ-democratic ÖVP, the office manager Erich Galander. The 21 seats in the municipal council are currently assigned to the following parties: SPÖ 5, GREENs 1, ÖVP 15.

Culture and sights

Buildings

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 Roman civilization *Epistle to the Romans, shortened to Romans, a letter w ...

bridge at Lanzing, which was probably built in the 3rd or 4th centuries. *Mauer parish church at Mauer bei Melk, with its carved altar from 1509, a masterpiece of the late gothic. In the wings of the church, there are images showing the life of Lady Mary. Furthermore, the gothic Sakramenthäuschen is of artistic interest. *Military church in Gerolding. The most interesting sights are the gothic

pulpit A pulpit is a raised stand for preachers in a Christian church. The origin of the word is the Latin ''pulpitum'' (platform or staging). The traditional pulpit is raised well above the surrounding floor for audibility and visibility, accesse ...

, a fresco from the 17th century, and the gothic presbyterium with a "session niche". *Parish church at Gansbach. The church probably originates from the 14th century. The side altar piece of the famous painter Kremser Schmidt and the high altarpiece, which was painted by one of his students, are worth seeing. Mauer Kirche 01.jpg, Church Mauer Altardetail 01 carving altar.jpg, Carving altar Sakramentshaus 001.jpg, Sakramenthäuschen Jagdschloss_Wolfstein.jpg, Jagdschloss Wolfstein in

References

{{authority control Cities and towns in Melk District