Dornbirn is the most populous municipality in the Austrian state
of Vorarlberg and also the seat of the Dornbirn District Commission.
The city is an economic center in the north of the westernmost state
of Austria and a regional transport hub. With its 49,872 inhabitants
(as of January 1, 2020) Dornbirn is the tenth largest city in
Austria and the largest without its own statute.
The
importance of the city only developed relatively late at the end of
the 19th century with the flourishing of the textile industry, which
quickly made Dornbirn the largest municipality between the Alpine
Rhine and Arlberg. Since the decline of the local textile industry
in the last quarter of the 20th century, trade, commerce, tourism
and some medium-sized industrial companies have dominated the city's
economy, which is still a dominant economic center of Vorarlberg and
by far the largest place of work in the state. In addition, with the
Vorarlberg University of Applied Sciences established here in the
1990s, Dornbirn is the most important university location in the
state and a center for science and education.
There are several cultural venues in the trade fair city of Dornbirn.
The Kulturhaus Dornbirn always offers space for various theater and
cabaret performances, as well as for other events. The Spielboden, a
stage for Vorarlberg artists, and the Conrad Sohm are also known beyond
regional borders.
“Dornbirn Klassik” organizes classical concerts
all year round.
As a relatively young city (the city was only
founded in 1901), Dornbirn only has a few landmarks or tourist
destinations. The municipality of Dornbirn offers a variety of events
worth seeing, especially in the natural area.
In February 2018,
the city of Dornbirn announced that it would apply as a banner city
together with the cities of Feldkirch, Hohenems and the Bregenzerwald
region for the title of “European Capital of Culture” 2024. The city of
Bregenz originally wanted to enter the race as the banner city of this
application community, but withdrew from the application at the end of
2017. Those responsible then agreed on Dornbirn as the banner city. In
the run-up to the official application, numerous dialogue and thought
workshops took place in several communities and cities throughout
Vorarlberg. The application process was led by cultural manager Bettina
Steindl. The application office “Culture Perspectives 2024” was founded
in 2018 for the application, which was renamed “Dornbirn plus Feldkirch
Hohenems Bregenzerwald” – “Dornbirn plus” for short – after the official
application was submitted. On January 31st, a twelve-person jury
announced that Dornbirn had received a place on the so-called shortlist
and had therefore advanced one round in the selection process. This also
applied to the other two applicants from Austria, St. Pölten and Bad
Ischl. Ultimately, in the jury decision in November 2019, Bad Ischl
prevailed over St. Pölten and Dornbirn and thus became the Capital of
Culture 2024.
In addition to the municipal facilities, the city museum/city
archive, since 2003 there has been the inatura Erlebnis Naturschau
Dornbirn, an interactive museum of natural history and natural history
that is known beyond the regional borders and is located on the former
Rüsch-Werke factory site in the middle of the new city park.
The
FLATZ Museum opened in July 2009 in the converted building of the former
Vorarlberg Nature Show. The museum is dedicated to the Munich-based
sculptor Wolfgang Flatz, who was born in Dornbirn. The museum, which
only consists of two rooms, is entirely dedicated to the work of the
artist, who is known for his provocative actions. The Vorarlberg
Architecture Institute is also located in the same building, where
several exhibitions from the field of building culture are shown every
year.
Other Dornbirn museums are:
Dornbirn Art Space,
Nativity Museum Dornbirn,
Rolls Royce Museum
The young cityscape of Dornbirn is primarily characterized by the
architectural styles of the 19th and 20th centuries. In the second half
of the 20th century, the local architectural scene attracted
international attention under the term New Vorarlberg Building School,
whose representatives included the Cooperative Dornbirn - later
Baumschlager & Eberle, Dietrich/Untertrifaller and Oskar Leo Kaufmann.
In and around Dornbirn, especially since the 1980s, many buildings have
been built that have received attention from experts across Europe under
this label, e.g. the Hotel Martinspark (1995).
Older buildings in
Dornbirn are also architecturally interesting. These are located
directly on the market square, with Dornbirn's landmark, the “Red House”
and St. Martin's Church.
Parish church of St. Martin (1839–1840)
This church is also
popularly known as the Dorfer or Markterkirche. St. Martin's Church is
first mentioned in 1130. The church in its current form represents at
least the fifth building in almost the same location. The current church
building was built by state architect Martin Ritter von Kink between
1839 and 1840 and represents a blend of classicism and historicism. The
local artist Josef Huber In 1923 he created the fresco “The Four Last
Things” on the entrance wall and the following year the mosaic “Entry
into Jerusalem” in the flat gable. It is a building with a round apse
and a free-standing east tower with a pointed gable helmet.
Red House
(1639)
Michael Danner and Verena Rhomberg built the Gasthof Zum Engel
in 1639 on the site of the former Dornbirn rectory. In 1954/1955, the
builder's descendant, August Rhomberg, had it renovated by the architect
Franz Hoffenscher.
Other Rhine Valley houses such as the Loackerhaus,
the house at Klostergasse 1, the houses in the historic center of
Hatlerdorf or on the Häfenberg.
Adolf Rhomberg House: stately late
Baroque town house (1799), which was rebuilt in 1900 with Art Nouveau
elements
Johann Luger House (1901–1902)
This renovation by the
later Art Nouveau architects shows how closely Art Nouveau and national
romanticism were connected in Vorarlberg.
Workers' terraced houses
(1907)
These buildings on Bündtlittenstrasse by the Bregenz master
builder Otto Mallaun are a special example of the adoption and local
application of an English terraced house model. Since there are two
apartments on top of each other, they are not real terraced houses, but
rather apartment buildings in the form of a terraced house.
Schlossguggerhaus: with its approximate construction date around 1294,
the oldest surviving building in Dornbirn.
Church of Mary, Queen of Peace in Watzenegg (1985–1986)
This
building by Wolfgang Ritsch, Siegfried Wäger and Rudolf Wäger can be
viewed as a prototype of the Vorarlberg wooden construction method of
the 1980s.
Panorama house
In this building by architect Bernhard
Hügelmayer, completed in 2005, the elliptical structure is encased in a
curved glass facade. This offers guests of the Home of Balance and the
Four Points by Sheraton the panoramic situation over the landscape from
Lake Constance, over Dornbirn's local mountains, the city of Dornbirn,
over the Rhine Valley to the Swiss rock massifs as a spatial experience.
The 976 meter high Karren, located southeast of the city, is actually
just a secondary peak on the northern slope of the almost 500 meter
higher Staufen, but due to its easy accessibility it is considered
Dornbirn's local mountain. The Karrenseilbahn, an aerial cableway that
overcomes a height difference of around 520 meters, leads to it. On the
wooded summit there is a panoramic restaurant and the “Karren-Kante”, a
panoramic viewing platform that protrudes 12 meters above the edge of
the rock. From the mountain station you can climb to the summit of
Staufen or descend along a forest nature trail to Lake Staufen.
There are numerous other mountains in the city's municipal area, which
are easily accessible thanks to the Vorarlberg hiking trail system. The
best known are the aforementioned Staufen, the Mörzelspitze and the most
striking mountain in the municipality, the Hohe Freschen. The highest
mountain is the Sünser Spitze.
The Rappenloch Gorge with
Staufensee and Alploch is a popular excursion destination southeast of
Dornbirn. The two gorges are flowed through by the Dornbirner Ach and
are among the largest gorges in the Eastern Alps. The two gorges have
been accessible since 1890. In the small basin in between lies the
Staufensee, which was created in the same year as a water reservoir for
the power station of a spinning mill in the Gütle district (Oberdorf
district).
Dornbirn is located at an altitude of 437 meters in the Rhine Valley at the foot of the Bregenz Forest Mountains and thus on the western edge of the Eastern Alps. Geographically, Dornbirn belongs to the Vorderer Bregenz Forest, which is part of the Austrian Pre-Alps. By far the most important river is the Dornbirner Ach, which divides the local area into two halves and thus also forms the border of some city districts.
Most of the Dornbirn settlement area lies directly on the sediment fan of the Dornbirner Ach. Due to its location in the Rhine Valley, the community is geologically located in the so-called Lake Constance basin, which was partly tectonically created, but was also formed by the erosion of the Rhine glacier, which receded after the last ice age. The Lake Constance basin forms the subsoil on which the sediments washed up by the Dornbirn Ach could be deposited and thus determine what is now Dornbirn's subsoil. In the east of the municipality rise the first mountains of the Eastern Alps, which here for the most part still consist of brittle diluvial masses.
The general altitude of the city of Dornbirn is 437 m above sea level. A. stated. This corresponds to the position of the stone city coat of arms, which is embedded in the middle of the market square. The geographically lowest point of Dornbirn is the river bed of the Dornbirner Ach a few meters before the confluence of the Vorarlberg Rhine Valley Inland Canal in the extreme north of the municipality at 399 m above sea level. A. The highest point is the summit of the Sünserspitze at 2061 m above sea level.
Dornbirn did not grow together from formerly independent villages, but was always a single municipality, the settlement areas of which, however, were very scattered and with today's districts 1 to 4 consisted of four unconnected parts. At that time these “quarters” were still called Niederdorf, Hatlerdorf, Oberdorf and Stiglingen. It was not until 1902 that these four districts were officially declared city districts with their current names (Niederdorf became the Markt district, Stiglingen became Haselstauden). Today there is an urban area that has grown together, which expanded particularly to the west of the railway line in the second half of the 20th century. In these areas, the Rohrbach and Schoren districts were partially created, which only became separate city districts in 1994.
The city's population is mainly concentrated in the core area in the extreme northwest of the municipality. However, especially on the mountain slopes in the east of the city, there are still numerous smaller places known as mountain parcels. These include Watzenegg and Kehlegg, which have high land prices, especially because of their hillside location and the view of the Rhine Valley. In addition, Winsau, Heilgereuthe and numerous other collections of houses in the eastern mountain area also belong to the city of Dornbirn. The most outstanding parcel of Dornbirn is the Walser village of Ebnit, which was formerly an independent municipality and became part of the city in 1932 due to financial problems. The Ebnit is also the southernmost and easternmost year-round inhabited area of Dornbirn and thus forms the center of the south-eastern municipality area, which is characterized by mountains and forests.
Due to the size of the municipality of Dornbirn, the city has numerous borders with other municipalities. Of the 15 neighboring communities in Dornbirn, nine belong to the political district of Bregenz (Lauterach, Wolfurt, Schwarzach, Bildstein, Alberschwende, Schwarzenberg, Reuthe, Mellau and Damüls) and four to the Feldkirch district (Laterns, Zwischenwasser, Viktorsberg and Fraxern). In addition, the two other municipalities of the Dornbirn district (Hohenems and Lustenau) border the municipal area of the city, which is the only municipality in the district that does not have a state border as a municipal boundary. (The municipalities are given clockwise, starting in the north.)
The entire
Dornbirn municipal area extends over an area of around 121 square
kilometers (12,093 hectares), the area is spread over three
cadastral communities
Dornbirn (9,930.41 ha)
Ebnit I (1,159.09
ha)
Ebnit II (1,003.50 ha)
Of this total area, around
4,815 hectares are forest areas and 5,723 hectares are meadows,
pastures and Alps. The municipal area of the city of Dornbirn
makes up about 70% of the area of the Dornbirn district (172.36
square kilometers). Dornbirn is the third largest municipality in
Vorarlberg after Gaschurn and St. Gallenkirch and makes up 4.65% of
the total area of the state.
Due to its location on the edge of the Eastern Alps and the Bregenz Forest Mountains, the city of Dornbirn can reach several mountain peaks over 1,500 resp. Mention an altitude of 2,000 meters in their municipality. The most striking are the 971 meter high Karren, which is accessed by a cable car and is Dornbirn's local mountain, and the Staufen (1465 m above sea level). The 1,830 meter high Mörzelspitze and the Hohe Freschen, which is 2,004 meters high, are also popular with hikers. The highest mountain in the municipality is the rather inconspicuous Sünserspitze at 2062 m above sea level. A. Most of the mountain peaks in the municipality are accessible by hiking trails. The mountain landscape of Dornbirn is determined by the so-called First, the mountain range to which the Mörzelspitze, Hohe Freschen and Sünser Spitze belong and which can still be seen from Friedrichshafen on a clear day.
The waterways map of the municipality is dominated by the Dornbirner Ach, the main river of Dornbirn. The Ach is one of the most important drainage rivers in the front Bregenzerwald and also a drain for numerous larger and smaller streams in the Dornbirn mountain landscape. Most of the countless rivers and streams that join the Dornbirner Ach as it runs from the southernmost to the northernmost point of the municipality have no name. The Fallbach is the only stream that does not flow directly into the Dornbirner Ach, but first flows into the Rhine Valley inland canal. There are only a few lakes in Dornbirn, two of the most famous are the Sünser See and the Staufensee Reservoir. In its course, the Dornbirner Ach also flows through the Alploch and Rappenloch gorges, two millennia-old gorges that are nowadays developed and accessible for tourists.
The climate in Dornbirn is relatively mild by
Austrian standards, favored by its location in the Rhine Valley and
the foehn. The average temperature over the entire year is 10 ° C.
The warmest month is July with an average of 19.3 ° C, the
coldest is January with 0.4 ° C. Permafrost periods occur almost
annually, but extreme lows are rare. The average low temperature
over the course of the year is −13.0 ° C. Like the entire Alpine
Rhine Valley, Dornbirn lies on the border between USDA climate zone
7b and 8a and is one of the mildest regions in Austria in terms of
winter.
The last frost (measurement period 1993–2019) occurs
on average on April 14th, the first on November 6th. The frost-free
period is on average 205 days. Temperatures do not drop below
freezing between the beginning of May and mid-October.
An
average of 13 ice and 82 frost days are recorded. In contrast, there
are 52 summer days and 9 hot days.
The lowest recorded
temperature since measurements began in 1993 is −17.9 ° C, the
highest so far at 36.8 ° C.
Noteworthy is the extensive
annual precipitation for Central European conditions, which is a
long-term average a little over 1,500 mm and in parts of the
municipal area increases to well over 2,000 mm. This means that
closed, sometimes considerable, snow covers are registered in all
winters.
In winter, the sun shines on average between two and
four hours a day. This number increases to over seven hours by the
summer months of June to August. The average duration of sunshine is
just under 1,800 hours a year, which is relatively little for the
conditions in Austrian valleys.