Hittisau is a municipality in the
district of Bregenz in the
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 ...
n state of
Vorarlberg
Vorarlberg ( ; ; , , or ) is the westernmost States of Austria, state () of Austria. It has the second-smallest geographical area after Vienna and, although it also has the second-smallest population, it is the state with the second-highest popu ...
. Hittisau has a surface area of 46.65 km
2. It lies in the
Bregenzerwald
The Bregenzerwald (, ) is one of the main regions in the state of Vorarlberg (Austria). It overlaps, but is not coterminous with, the Bregenz Forest Mountains, which belong to a range of the Northern Limestone Alps, specifically the northern flys ...
in the west of the country.
Hittisau is a member of the German-Austrian community project Naturpark
Nagelfluhkette
The Nagelfluhkette is a mountain range located in Bavaria, Germany and Vorarlberg, Austria, bordering on the northern edge of the Allgäu Alps. It has a maximum altitude of 1,834 m above sea level. Its name derives from the rock type Nagelfluh. ...
.
Population
History
In 1249, "Hittinsowe" was reported for the first time in a document. In 1754, Hittisau counted 1000 inhabitants, in 1850 there were 2087 Hittisauers. In 1908 electricity came to the municipality. The water company was built in 1929.
Culture
The parish church Hl. Drei Könige was built from 1843 to 1845. The artist Josef Bucher painted the canvas (of the three kings) for the high altar around 1850. Christian Moosbrugger contributed a lot to the sculpture of the church. The organ was built in 1868 by the Rankweiler organ builder Alois Schönach.
In 1977, the Sennerei Hittisau (cheese factory Hittisau) was founded. The cheese factory concentrated mainly on the production of
Emmental
The Emmental (, ) is a valley in west-central Switzerland, forming part of the canton of Bern. It is a hilly landscape comprising the basins of the rivers Emme and Ilfis. The region is mostly devoted to farming, particularly dairy farming. The ...
cheese. Since the EU membership in 1995, the production has focused on Hittisauer
Bergkäse
for, de, Bergkäse, mountain cheese refers to a number of varieties of cheese produced in the Alps. This includes products of mountain farming, the cultivation of alpine pastures as well as the milk processing of local producers in dairies. The ...
. Today, the cheese factory in Hittisau is one of the largest in the Bregenzerwald with around 5 million kilograms of milk delivered per year; it still produces cheese in the traditional Vorarlberg way. The cheese factory is part of the
KäseStraße Bregenzerwald. The Alpsennereimuseum, also located in Hittisau, informs about the alpine cheese production that has been going on for centuries.
The
Frauenmuseum (Women's museum) in Hittisau was opened in 2000 and is devoted to the achievements of women. It is the only museum in Austria whose goal it is to make women visible and document female representatives of art and culture.
Notable People From Hittisau
*
Hans Weiss (author) b.1950
External links
Website of the municipalityWebsite of the Women's museum HittisauWebsite of the cheese factory
References
Cities and towns in Bregenz District
{{Vorarlberg-geo-stub