Feldkirch, Austria

 

Measured in terms of population, Feldkirch is the second largest city in the Austrian state of Vorarlberg with 34,210 inhabitants (as of January 1, 2020) and is also the seat of the district administration of the administrative district of the same name. Feldkirch is the westernmost municipality in Austria and its 13th most populous city.

Feldkirch is the seat of numerous institutions, which is why it is also referred to as the "secret state capital". These include the Feldkirch Regional Court, the Vorarlberg Chamber of Commerce, the Vorarlberg Chamber of Labor, the largest regional hospital in Vorarlberg (Feldkirch Regional Hospital), the Vorarlberg State Conservatory, a branch of the Federal Finance Court and the State Office for Surveying and Geoinformation (LVG). Feldkirch has been a diocesan town and bishopric since 1968 and has also been a university town since the Vorarlberg University of Education was founded in 2007.

For the Fritzens Sanzeno culture see cult place in the Grütze hallway.

 

Culture and sights

Buildings

Feldkirch city center
Feldkirch has one of the best-preserved medieval townscapes in Vorarlberg. The city was built around 1200 at the same time as the Schattenburg and features a geometric grid system. Since the city wall was rebuilt around 1500, the city has remained unchanged over the centuries.

The Feldkirch ensemble has been listed in the Austrian list of cultural assets (cultural assets protected under the Hague Convention) since 2015.

The Montforthaus was reopened at the beginning of 2015. It serves as a culture and congress center. A market and festival hall was originally opened at this location in 1926. In 1973 this public hall burned down and a new building was decided. Two years later, the new building called “Stadthalle” was opened. In 1990 it was given the new name Montforthaus.

 

City fortifications

The streets of the Schlossgraben, Hirschgraben and St. Leonhardsplatz mark the former course of the city wall that initially surrounded the Neustadt area in the 13th century. The wall was largely rebuilt around 1500 and has been demolished in many places since 1826.

As long as Feldkirch was surrounded by a city wall and a city moat, you could only enter the city through one of the four gates. These city gates were called Bregenzer or Nikolaustor, Bludenzer or Schultor, Mühle or Sautor and Churer or Salztor. The latter two gates still stand today, the other two were demolished along with the city wall at the beginning of the 19th century.

The Churer Tor was built as part of the old city wall in 1491 and is located at the exit from Montfortgasse to Hirschgraben. The name is derived from Churerstraße, which begins here. Because the salt barn, in which salt was stored, stood next to this gate until around 1900, it is also called the “Salt Gate”. The building has a coat of arms stone on the wall with the Feldkirch coat of arms in a scrollwork cartouche (1591).
The eight-story, round Cat Tower (also called the “Thick Tower”) stands on Hirschgraben. It was built as part of the city's fortifications against the Swiss under the reign of the Roman-German King and later Emperor Maximilian I from 1491 to 1507. In the 17th century, the bell chamber was built for the large church bell (the largest in Vorarlberg). The mighty, originally six-story round tower was decorated with an image of the Virgin Mary, which was restored by Florus Scheel in the 19th century. The name comes from cats (weapons) that were housed in the defensive tower, or from the sights made of cat and lion heads on the cannons that were once stationed on the tower.
Powder Tower: The tower from 1460 stands on the southern corner of the city wall, near the mill gate
Water Tower: This is located in the western corner of the city, just like the
Thieves storm

 

Castles and palaces

Schattenburg: The Schattenburg was the ancestral home of the Counts of Montfort until 1390. The first construction phase began around 1230 under Hugo I of Montfort, the founder of the city. Under Count Friedrich von Toggenburg (1416–1436) and bailiff Hans von Königsegg, the Schattenburg was expanded and redesigned in the 15th century. After the bailiff's office moved out, the castle was put up for auction several times, and in 1813 it was even supposed to be demolished. The Schattenburg has been owned by the city of Feldkirch since 1825, which acquired it for 833 guilders. The Schattenburg now served as a barracks and later as a poor quarters. The castle owes its rescue and revival to the Museum and Heritage Association for Feldkirch and the surrounding area, which was founded in 1912. The castle houses a castle restaurant in the rooms on the ground floor, and a local museum operates on the upper floors, which attracts around 25,000 guests every year.
Toster ruins
Liechtenstein Palace: In its current form, the house at Schlossergasse No. 8 was built in the baroque style after the city fire of 1697 as an official residence for Prince Johann Adam Andreas of Liechtenstein. For some time the house was owned by Christian Getzner (1782–1848). In 1848 it came into the possession of the Tschavoll family, from whose heirs the city acquired it in 1967. Today the building is used as a city archive and library.

 

Churches, monasteries, chapels and other places of worship

The cathedral parish church of St. Nicholas was first mentioned in 1287. The originally Romanesque building was badly damaged by city fires (1348, 1398, 1460). The late Gothic new building was completed in 1478. The cathedral church is the most important Gothic church in Vorarlberg. Their importance can be seen primarily in the interior. Among other works of art, you can also see a wrought iron Gothic pulpit, which was created from an original sacrament house.
The Frauenkirche (own church of the Annunciation and St. Sebastian and Antonius) is located southeast of the Chur Gate. It originally dates from 1473, but was largely redesigned between 1672 and 1678; Serb Orthodox parish church since 1990 and equipped with an iconostasis
Johanniter Church: The Church of St. John the Baptist in Marktgasse was built in 1218 under Hugo Graf Montfort as the church of the Knights Hospitaller. From 1665 it belonged to the Ottobeuren monastery. After secularization, it served as the church of the high school from 1809 to 1969. On the gable side, a knight figure, the “Bläsi”, strikes a bell every hour to tell the time.
The cemetery church of St. Peter and Paul, built in 1551, is located in the middle of the cemetery that was laid out in 1549 in the north of the city. There is also a coat of arms gravestone of Franz Ferdinand Ramschwag (1716).
The Feldkirch Capuchin monastery was founded in 1602. In 1605 the monastery building in the northeast of the city outside the former city walls was completed and the Church of the Sacrifice of the Virgin Mary was consecrated. The city patron St. Fidelis von Sigmaringen, who was the monastery head here in 1621 and whose head is kept in the monastery, is particularly revered here.
Holy Cross Chapel in the “im Kehr” district
St. Margaretha Chapel on Margarethenkapf
The St. Josef Institute is a monastery of the Sisters of the Cross and a school.
Old Evangelical parish church (H. B.) near the train station
The Reformed St. Paul's Church (H.B.) where the Romanian Orthodox parish and the Old Catholics also celebrate services.
There has been a Buddhist monastery in Letzehof (southwest of the city center) since 1982.
There are several free church, evangelical and New Apostolic communities with their own worship facilities in Feldkirch.
The Romanian Orthodox parish celebrates its services in the Protestant St. Paul's Church.

In Levi's:

Parish church of St. Magdalena
Parish Vicariate Church of Mary Queen of Peace and cemetery
There is a mosque of the Islamic Federation (Millî Görüş) in Levis that was originally established in Tisis.

In Altenstadt:
The parish church of Saints Pankratius and Zeno was built before 1425, received a tower in 1825/26 and was enlarged in 1884/86.
The Dominican convent has been inhabited and maintained by sisters of the Dominican order since 1551. The current monastery building originally dates from 1634, but was later expanded. The Dominican Church of the Annunciation of Mary from 1695 replaced an earlier church building from 1640/42.
Petronilla Chapel

In Gisingen:

The parish church of St. Sebastian was built in 1864–65 on the site of a plague chapel built in 1634 and enlarged in 1922 due to the large increase in population.
There is a Bosniak mosque in the Hämmerlesiedlung.

In Nofels:
The old parish church of Our Lady of the Visitation was built between 1726 and 1728, and the tower was raised in 1865. From 1958 to 1962 a new building was added to the church.
Chapel St. Sebastian and Fridolin in Bangs.
Chapel St. Martin and Magnus in Oberfresch.
There is a small mosque in Nofels.

In Tisis:
Old parish church of St. Michael
Parish Church of the Holy Family
St. Antionius Chapel

In Toasters:
Parish Church of St. Cornelius and Cyprian
Parish church of St. Corneli
Chapel of St. wolfgang

 

Villas and other residential buildings

The Feldkirchen bourgeoisie built a number of representative residential buildings in the 19th century, most of which are still privately owned today. The villas were mostly built on Reichsstrasse, especially in the area between the Bärenkreuzung and the train station.

Villa Getzner: The sandstone villa, with a coach house and servants' quarters, was built in 1882 according to the plans of the Swiss architect Hilarius Knobel. The building is a historical monument.
Villa Feldegg: This villa was built in 1861, the architect is unknown. It is characterized by a raised central projection with five window axes and a balcony with three arcades. It is a rare example of how the largely anonymous Biedermeier building culture, despite its historicizing touches, achieved the quality of the early Art Nouveau buildings.
Villa Claudia: The red Art Nouveau building with an onion dome is now publicly owned and houses the Feldkirch registry office. It is also a regular venue for exhibitions.
Residential complex in the municipality of Feldkirch (1925–1926): After the destruction of the spires of the town hall, this flat, rhythmic gable front of the residential complex (Graf Hugo Wehrgang 1–5) is the last sign of Lois Welzenbacher's urban planning work.

 

Cultural life and events

The City of Feldkirch's Culture Prize has been awarded since 1984.

Theater at Saumarkt
The Saumarkt sees itself as an important regional cultural mediator that continually picks up on current cultural trends, presents them locally and puts them up for discussion. In addition, premieres and in-house productions are regularly offered in cooperation with cultural workers in the country.

Pool Bar Festival
As part of the Pool Bar Festival, concerts and various events are offered for six weeks in July and August. It takes place in the former Stella Matutina indoor swimming pool in Reichenfeldpark.

Weekly market
A weekly market takes place in Marktgasse twice a week. Local products and specialties such as Bregenzerwald cheese are offered.

Blossom Angel Market
Every year at the beginning of Advent, this market starts in the center, which is a normal Christmas market during the day and invites you to linger with mulled wine in the evening.

Jugglers Festival
Street artists from ten nations perform in the old town for two days as clowns, jugglers, mimes and comedians.

Vinobile Feldkirch
Over 100 winemakers from all wine-growing regions in Austria present themselves at the Vinobile wine fair.

Feldkirch wine festival
In July, the Feldkirch Wine Festival, which is known far beyond the country's borders, takes place in Marktgasse. The event was introduced in 1967 and was initially called the Wachau Wine Festival. The catering establishments present various wine specialties here over a weekend.

Light city Feldkirch
Lichtstadt Feldkirch, the festival for light art, celebrated its premiere in October 2018 and takes place every two years. After a break due to corona in 2020, the second light art festival took place in October 2021. National and international artists performed Feldkirch in many forms and facets. The historic old town formed the backdrop and framework for the festival evenings.

Potential Feldkirch
The Potentials Feldkirch is a cultural festival for urban space design at which around a hundred exhibitors present their products and ideas. The Potentiale Messe & Festival stands for the close relationship between product and designer, for comprehensible production chains and for consciously chosen materials and goods that were created in a fair process. The Potential takes place annually in November, but had to be canceled in 2020 and 2021 due to the corona pandemic.

 

James Joyce and Feldkirch

Since Bloomsday 1994, a James Joyce quote can be read in the Feldkirch train station hall, emphasizing the Irish writer's special connection to Feldkirch. Thanks to influential friends, James Joyce, who was considered an “enemy alien” in 1915 due to the World War, was able to leave Austria with his partner Nora Barnacle and their two children, while his brother Stanislaus Joyce was arrested in Trieste as an “enemy alien” and for the duration of the World War remained imprisoned. Joyce was also almost arrested at the border control in Feldkirch, which is why, according to him, the fate of his novel Ulysses was decided at the Feldkirch train station. In the summer of 1932, Joyce's friendship with the publishing couple Maria and Eugene Jolas took him back to Montfortstadt, where he stayed at the Hotel Löwen for three weeks and worked on Finnegans Wake.

Feldkirch's dual connection with the life and work of James Joyce was long unknown to the general public. At the suggestion of the literary scholar Andreas Weigel, who pointed out this special literary-historical position of the Montfort city to the Vorarlberg Finance and Culture Councilor Guntram Lins in 1992, the Feldkirch cultural group installed commemorative plaques in the station hall and at the Hotel Löwen in 1994, with financial support from the State Cultural Department together with the Zurich James Joyce Foundation organized a multi-day Joyce symposium. At the end of 2001, the ÖBB replaced the memorial plaque mounted above the ticket counters by the Feldkirch cultural group on Bloomsday 1994 with a particularly vivid and eye-catching presentation of the literary-historical Joyce quote, with which the ÖBB made a significant contribution to the popularization and dissemination of the fact, which had been hidden for decades. On June 16, 2004, after ten years of discussion, the city of Feldkirch officially renamed the Lions Passage to the James Joyce Passage on the occasion of the celebration of the 100th Bloomsday. On this occasion, the city of Feldkirch installed a notice board with biographical background information.

 

History

Ancient and Middle Ages

A few kilometers north of today's urban area (in today's Rankweil) there was already a settlement with an ecclesia sancti Petri ad Campos, i.e. a church of St. Peter in the field, in late Roman times. In the 9th century, another (branch) church was built in the field, the St. Petronilla Church (today the Chapel of St. Petronilla and Martin). The name Feldkirichun in the Rätisches Reichsurbar - a property register from 842 AD - was derived from one of these churches in the field and originally referred to the settlement of today's Altenstadt. The name Feldkirch (Veldkiricha, Veldkirchia and other spellings) was then taken over for the southern, near the Ill, newly created and rapidly growing settlement at the foot of the Schattenburg built under Count Hugo I of Montfort and the original Feldkirch, although still a village, little by little Alte Stat, later called Altenstadt.

In 1218 the new Feldkirch was first mentioned as a town in a document. The last count of the Feldkirch line of the Montforters, Rudolf V († 1390), was first canon and provost in Chur for many years and was only appointed to the government after a late, childless marriage. In 1375 he sold the town and rule of Feldkirch to Duke Leopold III. von Habsburg, whose bailiffs finally moved into Feldkirch in 1379.

At the beginning of the 14th century, thirty to forty Jews lived in Feldkirch, but they were burned in 1349 because they were held responsible for the outbreak of the plague.

In connection with the sale, the Feldkirch citizens knew how to fight for freedom rights, which found expression in the great freedom letter of 1376 and which they knew how to use economically.

Trade with Italy and the Holy Roman Empire flourished and brought prosperity to the city. The artisans achieved such importance that in 1405 they dared to revolt against the patricians. The city's wealth was an important prerequisite for its cultural development. They had enough money to found a Latin school, which can be verified for the first time in 1399.

As a result, the Habsburgs administered their dominions in what is now Vorarlberg, alternately from Tyrol and Upper Austria (Freiburg im Breisgau). In the late Middle Ages, in the time of the Appenzell Wars (1405–1429) between the prince abbey of St. Gallen, allied with Habsburg, and the subordinate Appenzell, the development of the state territories, which was completed in modern times, began. Significant for this are different alliances between the cities and the estates of the Feldkirch rulership with the courtiers at Altstätten, Berneck and Marbach, with the city of St. Gallen and with the country people on the Eschnerberg. In 1405, when the city of Feldkirch was admitted, the actual establishment of the Confederation ob dem See, the most important alliance of that time in this region, followed the federal model. The federal government expanded rapidly with the accession of Bludenz, Rankweil, Sax, Gaster, Toggenburg and others. Daring military ventures and uprisings against the rule of the Habsburgs (Tyrol, Allgäu, Thurgau) were successful in the short term and led to the destruction of numerous noble castles. On January 13, 1408, however, the federation was subject to the Habsburg army of knights near Bregenz.

 

Modern times

A battle took place near Feldkirch in 1799 during the Second Coalition War. In 1649 the Jesuit order founded a college in Feldkirch, from which the elite high school Stella Matutina developed from 1856 onwards, which was sponsored by the imperial family and which - with interruptions - existed until 1979 and gained international religious, scientific and educational influence through the Feldkirch.

 

20th century

In 1925, the urban area expanded considerably through the incorporation of Levis, Altenstadt, Gisingen, Nofels, Tosters and Tisis.

On October 1, 1943, Feldkirch was the target of an Allied air raid. A USAAF bomber association, which was supposed to attack a Messerschmitt plant near Augsburg, but had not found its target due to bad weather, used Feldkirch as a substitute target instead. Among other things, a hospital in the Tisis district was hit, causing over 100 deaths. Apart from the French troops marching in at the end of the war, the bombing raid on Feldkirch was the only major fighting in the Vorarlberg area during the Second World War.

The Kolping family Feldkirch with the Kolping House on Jahnplatz is the oldest still existing workers' association in Vorarlberg.