Dornbirn, Austria

 

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.

 

Culture and sights

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.

 

Museums

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

 

Architecture

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.

 

Historical buildings

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.

 

Modern architecture

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.

 

Nature

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).

 

Geography

Geographical location

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.

 

Geology

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.

 

Altitude

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.

 

City structure

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.

 

Districts

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.

 

Neighboring communities

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.)

 

Area balance

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.

 

Mountain landscape

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.

 

Rivers and bodies of water

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.

 

Climate

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.