Zillingtal (, ) is a community of 1,005 inhabitants (as of January 2023) in the West of the district of

Eisenstadt-Umgebung The Bezirk Eisenstadt-Umgebung (; ) is an administrative district (''Bezirk'') in the federal state of Burgenland, Austria. The area of the district is 455.5 km2, with a population of 44,787 (2024), and a population density of 99 persons per ...

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 ...

's federal state

Burgenland Burgenland (; ; ; Bavarian language, Austro-Bavarian: ''Burgnland''; Slovene language, Slovene: ''Gradiščanska''; ) is the easternmost and least populous Bundesland (Austria), state of Austria. It consists of two statutory city (Austria), statut ...

. There is a minority population of

Burgenland Croats Burgenland Croats (, , , ) are ethnic Croats in the Austrian state of Burgenland, along with Croats in neighboring Hungary and Slovakia. Around 320,000 residents of Austria identify as of Croat heritage; 56,785 have, as sole or multiple natio ...

Population

Geography

The community is situated in the North of Burgenland close to the Lower Austrian Border.

History

Before Christ, the community was part of the Celtic kingdom

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 ...

and part of the environment of the Celtic hilltop settlement Burgberg. Later on, under the governance of the

Roman Empire The Roman Empire ruled the Mediterranean and much of Europe, Western Asia and North Africa. The Roman people, Romans conquered most of this during the Roman Republic, Republic, and it was ruled by emperors following Octavian's assumption of ...

, the community of Zillingtal was situated in the province of

Pannonia Pannonia (, ) was a Roman province, province of the Roman Empire bounded on the north and east by the Danube, on the west by Noricum and upper Roman Italy, Italy, and on the southward by Dalmatia (Roman province), Dalmatia and upper Moesia. It ...

. There is an

Avaric Avar (, , "language of the mountains" or , , "Avar language"), also known as Avaric, is a Northeast Caucasian language of the Avar–Andic subgroup that is spoken by Avars, primarily in Dagestan. In 2010, there were approximately one mill ...

field of tombs from the 7th and 8th century, that has been discovered in 1927. The name of Zillingtal was first mentioned officially in 1271. In 1529 and in 1683 Zillingtal was destroyed by the

Ottoman Army The Military of the Ottoman Empire () was the armed forces of the Ottoman Empire. It was founded in 1299 and dissolved in 1922. Army The Military of the Ottoman Empire can be divided in five main periods. The foundation era covers the years ...

. Afterwards,

Croats The Croats (; , ) are a South Slavs, South Slavic ethnic group native to Croatia, Bosnia and Herzegovina and other neighboring countries in Central Europe, Central and Southeastern Europe who share a common Croatian Cultural heritage, ancest ...

refilled the population which had been destroyed by the Turkish wars. Until 1920/21 Zillingtal was part of

Hungary Hungary is a landlocked country in Central Europe. Spanning much of the Pannonian Basin, Carpathian Basin, it is bordered by Slovakia to the north, Ukraine to the northeast, Romania to the east and southeast, Serbia to the south, Croatia and ...

, as well as the rest of Burgenland. From 1898 the

hungarization Magyarization ( , also Hungarianization; ), after "Magyar"—the Hungarian autonym—was an assimilation or acculturation process by which non-Hungarian nationals living in the Kingdom of Hungary, then part of the Austro-Hungarian Empire, adopt ...

politics enforced by the Hungarian government in Budapest made the use of the Hungarian name of Zillingtal, Völfyfalu, mandatory. After the end of the

First World War World War I or the First World War (28 July 1914 – 11 November 1918), also known as the Great War, was a World war, global conflict between two coalitions: the Allies of World War I, Allies (or Entente) and the Central Powers. Fighting to ...

, Burgenland was, after a number of negotiations at St. Germain and Trianon in 1919 integrated to Austria.

Politics

The

municipal council A municipal council is the legislative body of a municipality or local government area. Depending on the location and classification of the municipality it may be known as a city council, town council, town board, community council, borough cou ...

has 15 seats as a whole.

Culture

Local Burgenland Croats run

Tamburica Tamburica ( or ; sometimes written tamburrizza or tamburitza; sh-Latn-Cyrl, separator=" / ", tamburica, тамбурица, little tamboura) or tamboura (; ) refers to a family of long-necked lutes popular in Southeast Europe and southeastern ...

Celindof orchestra.

References

Cities and towns in Eisenstadt-Umgebung District {{Burgenland-geo-stub