Hartberg () is a city in

Styria Styria ( ; ; ; ) is an Austrian Federal states of Austria, state in the southeast of the country. With an area of approximately , Styria is Austria's second largest state, after Lower Austria. It is bordered to the south by Slovenia, and cloc ...

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 ...

and the district seat of

Hartberg-Fürstenfeld District Hartberg-Fürstenfeld () is a district in Styria, Austria. It came into effect on 1 January 2013 by merging the districts of Hartberg and Fürstenfeld. Municipalities Since the 2025 Styria municipal structural reform, it consists of the following ...

. As of January 1st 2024, it has a population of 6,713 in an area of 21.58 km². About 68 km up the A2 Autobahn is the large Styrian capital of

Graz Graz () is the capital of the Austrian Federal states of Austria, federal state of Styria and the List of cities and towns in Austria, second-largest city in Austria, after Vienna. On 1 January 2025, Graz had a population of 306,068 (343,461 inc ...

. This town has a long and rich history. A settlement was located here in the

Neolithic The Neolithic or New Stone Age (from Ancient Greek, Greek 'new' and 'stone') is an archaeological period, the final division of the Stone Age in Mesopotamia, Asia, Europe and Africa (c. 10,000 BCE to c. 2,000 BCE). It saw the Neolithic Revo ...

ages. One of the most important, prehistoric settlements of

developed on "Ringkogel" in the 3rd century BC. A massive protective wall surrounded it. Only two towers remain of the 7-8 metre high and 1500 metre long wall. (Schölbinger Tower and Reck Tower). The first mention of Hartberg as a city was in a 1286 document. During the 15th century it was conquered by King

Matthias Corvinus of Hungary Matthias Corvinus (; ; ; ; ; ) was King of Hungary and Croatia from 1458 to 1490, as Matthias I. He is often given the epithet "the Just". After conducting several military campaigns, he was elected King of Bohemia in 1469 and adopted the tit ...

. A huge fire destroyed the town up to a few houses, but the population has been continually on the rise since then. A massive protective wall surrounded it. In 1122 margrave Leopold I of Styria founded "Hartberg". Hartberg was even a central village in Styria for a certain time. The first written reference to Hartberg as "civitas" was in 1286.

References

External links

the official site of Hartberg
Cities and towns in Hartberg-Fürstenfeld District March of Styria {{Styria-geo-stub