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.
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.