With 4200 inhabitants (as of January 1, 2020), Fügen is the most
populous municipality in the Zillertal and belongs to the Schwaz
district in Tyrol (Austria). The community is located in the
judicial district of Zell am Ziller.
Fügen is considered the
capital of the lower Zillertal. The place lies on the wide mudflow
cone of the Rischbach. The municipality consists of the cluster
village of Fügen with 2435 inhabitants (as of 2011) and the villages
of Gagering in the north with 103 inhabitants, Kapfing in the south
with 863 inhabitants and the former industrial settlement Kleinboden
am Finsingbach in the southwest with 400 inhabitants.
Urn
graves found in Kapfing in 1982 prove an early settlement during the
Bronze Age. Finsing was mentioned in a document as early as 927 as
“Funzina”, while Fügen itself was first mentioned as “Fugnæ” around
1140/49. Fügen belonged to the diocese of Brixen ecclesiastically,
but under constitutional law to the archbishopric of Salzburg until
1803. For some time, Fügen was the “thing” of the Salzburg court of
Zell.
The great hardship of the Thirty Years' War led to the
uprising of the Fügen farmers on May 19, 1645 against their
sovereign prince, the Archbishop of Salzburg, to whom they were
subject to interest. All the Zillertal farmers who were subordinate
to the Archbishop of Salzburg joined this uprising.
In 1678 a
separate judge was appointed for the Salzburg court of Fügen, which
in 1849 was designated as the district court. In 1923 the judicial
district of Fügen was assigned to the Zell am Ziller district court.
Fügen has been important as the industrial center of the valley
since the 15th century, where cannon balls, armor plates and iron
sheets were produced. In 1697, Count Fieger's Fügen iron company
built an ironworks in Kiefersfelden (Bavaria). The operations had to
be closed at the end of the 19th century due to competition.
Fügen Castle
Fügen Castle is located in the municipality of Fügen in the
Schwaz district in the Austrian state of Tyrol. The oldest parts of
the castle were built around 1550 by Georg von Keutschach from
Carinthia, who also started iron mining in this area and is buried
in the parish church of Maria Himmelfahrt von Fügen (tombstone from
1581). He had a residential tower built here, which has been
preserved with its loopholes and a pointed arch door in the
southeast corner of the castle. The next owners from 1581 onwards
were Schneeweiß from Arnoldstein, who were also ironworks and had
several smelting works built. In 1651, Count Ferdinand Fieger von
Friedberg, a brother-in-law of the last Schneeweiß, acquired the
castle. Between 1695 and 1702, the Fieger had the palace redesigned
into a baroque palace and gave the building its current form.
In 1802 Nikolaus Graf Dönhoff acquired the property after the
Fieger had died out, and in 1831–1851 he housed a needle factory
here to process the iron obtained on site. On the occasion of a
conference between Emperor Franz I and Tsar Nicholas I, the song
Silent Night, Holy Night was performed publicly for the first time
by the Rainer group of singers in 1822.
In 1926, the Capuchin
Father Franz Josef Kramer acquired the property and, with the
support of the tertiary school sisters of St. Francis of Hall in
Tyrol, set up a denominational boys 'home with an attached,
initially one-class school for boys, the so-called St. Josef
Knabenheim or the later boys' castle . The institution was
responsible for the Seraphic Liebeswerk founded in 1889 by the
Capuchin Father Cyprian Fröhlich (1853–1931). In 1939 the facility
was confiscated by the National Socialists, who set up a Gau
educational home here until 1943. The children were transferred to
Jagdberg and the building was handed over to the Children's Land
Dispatch. After the end of the war, the castle was still used by the
Allies for a while. From 1946 the St. Josef facility was
reintegrated into the Seraphic Liebeswerk and from 1949 it was
operated as a denominational boys' education center under the name
Bubenburg. In the 1950s to 80s, individual fathers and educators
carried out physical and sexual violence against the children and
young people entrusted to them.
In 2012 the Seraphic
Liebeswerk changed its name and has been called "slw Social Services
of the Capuchins" since then. In 2016 the municipality of Fügen
bought the castle. Today the slw operates small residential
communities under the name slw Jugendhilfe for children and young
people who cannot live at home in Fügen, Strass, Fiecht, Kaltenbach
and Münster.
The castle is a four-wing building with two
turrets and a red marble arched portal that enclose a spacious
courtyard. The garden is bordered by a wall with three roundels.
Hooded turrets are attached to the northern roof corners. The
interior design (ceilings, stairs, doors) is in the style of the
17th century. The staircase has a baroque wooden railing and shows
the Fieger coat of arms from 1793. The castle chapel dates from
1681, the carved picture of Mariahilf that can be seen here is
famous.
Exhibits from the history of the place are shown in the local museum.
Fügen is considered to be the main town in the lower Zillertal. The place lies on the wide muddy cone of the Rischbach. The municipality consists of the cluster village of Fügen with 2644 inhabitants and the villages of Gagering in the north with 179 inhabitants, Kapfing in the south with 992 inhabitants and the former industrial settlement Kleinboden am Finsingbach in the southwest with 385 inhabitants (as of January 1, 2020).
Urn graves found in Kapfing in 1982 prove an early settlement
during the Bronze Age. Finsing was mentioned in a document as early
as 927 as "Funzina", while Fügen itself was only named "Fugnæ"
around 1140/49. Fügen belonged to the diocese of Brixen
ecclesiastically, but until 1803 it belonged to the archbishopric of
Salzburg. For some time, Fügen was the “dinghouse” of the Salzburg
court of Zell.
The great hardship of the Thirty Years' War
led to the uprising of the Fügen farmers on May 19, 1645 against
their sovereign prince, the Archbishop of Salzburg, to whom they
were subject to interest. All the Zillertal farmers who were
subordinate to the Archbishop of Salzburg joined this uprising.
In 1678 a separate judge was appointed for the Salzburg court of
Fügen, which in 1849 was designated as the district court. In 1923
the judicial district of Fügen was assigned to the Zell am Ziller
district court.
Fügen has been important as the industrial
center of the valley since the 15th century; cannon balls, armor
plates and iron sheets were produced here. In 1697, Count Fieger's
Fügen iron company built an ironworks in Kiefersfelden (Bavaria).
The operations had to be closed at the end of the 19th century due
to competition.