Tamsweg is the seat of the Tamsweg district administration responsible for the entire Lungau and the Tamsweg district court. Tamsweg is, along with Reutte, one of the two municipalities of a district authority in Austria that have not been elevated to the status of a city.
Schlossberg castle ruins
Klausegg castle ruins
Castle Kuenburg
Pilgrimage Church of St. Leonhard above Tamsweg
Deanery parish church
Tamsweg hl. James the Elder
Seetal Parish Church
Prebersee
Shooting annually in August
The Verein Vereinigte zu Tamsweg, a
funeral society founded by craftsmen in 1738 in the regional vicinity of
Tamsweg, was included in the Austrian list (national cultural asset) in
2010 as an intangible world heritage, as declared by UNESCO. They attend
funerals, take part in church processions and hold the United Octave (a
week of festivals) annually between January 1st and the Saturday after
Ash Wednesday
The Lungau was settled by Slavs from around 600 and by Bavarians from
around 700. The name is documented as Taemswich around 1156 and could
come from a Lord Domes who settled here with his clan around the year
700. At that time, the Carinthian nobleman Eberhard von der Drau handed
over an estate near Tamsweg to the Salzburg cathedral chapter.
In
1246 Archbishop Eberhard II bought the Lungau property of the Lords of
Pettau and gave the church and half of the market to the cathedral
chapter. Even then, Tamsweg must have been a parish in its own right. A
church is first mentioned in documents in 1231, at that time still as a
branch church of Mariapfarr.
From 1428 to 1433 the pilgrimage
church of St. Leonhard was built on a hill south of the village. Tamsweg
became a place of pilgrimage known far beyond the borders of Austria and
experienced a significant economic boom.
In July 1478 cavalry
troops of Ottoman Turks roamed through Carinthia as far as the Lungau
and in front of Tamsweg[4], the St. Leonhard's Church was then fortified
with an enclosing wall. A setback hit the town in 1490, when Tamsweg
fell during the wars of Emperor Friedrich III. against the Hungarian
king Matthias Corvinus, whose troops had established themselves in the
fortified St. Leonhard's Church, was burned and plundered by imperial
troops. The Reformation also brought a decline in pilgrimages, which
only picked up again with the settlement of Capuchins in the course of
the Counter-Reformation in 1644.
In 1571 the place became the
residence of the Barons of Kuenburg. The Archbishop of Salzburg, Georg
von Kuenburg, gave the town a market coat of arms in 1587. The oldest
verifiable weekly market privilege dates back to 1416; the right to hold
a market should go back to the times of the Pettau people.
From
around 1700 there was a brisk trade in salt and iron, which was an
important source of income for Tamsweg's citizens for more than 200
years.
In 1797, during the First Coalition War, Tamsweg was
occupied by French troops and had to burn 4,518 guilders. In addition,
222 oxen and large amounts of food and fodder were requisitioned.
After the Peace of Lunéville, the former Archdiocese of Salzburg
came to Austria as crown land and with it Tamsweg. The 19th century saw
a descent into insignificance for the region, which was accompanied by
population decline, poverty and development deficits.
Only at the
turn of the 20th century did the region experience an upswing again, so
in 1894 the Murtalbahn was opened, in 1897 an electricity plant and a
water pipe were built and in 1908 the hospital opened.
In 1936,
six surrounding rural communities were incorporated and the community
area was enlarged to the area it is today.
Tamsweg is located on Mount Preber in the eastern Lungau Basin (also
Tamsweg Basin) in a wide basin at the confluence of the Mur, Lungau
Taurach and Leißnitzbach. In the north, the Niedere Tauern frame the
basin. Tamsweg borders Styria in the east and is mainly accessed from
there.
Three percent of the municipal area is covered by moors,
which are mainly distributed over the low mountain ranges of
Schwarzenberg, Sauerfelder Wald and Überling and together form the
largest collection of moors in Austria.
congregational structure
The municipal area includes the following eight localities (number of
inhabitants in brackets as of January 1, 2023):
Haiden (243)
Keusching (46)
Lasaberg (167)
Mortelsdorf (940)
Sauerfeld (444)
Lake Valley (124)
Tamsweg (3606)
Wolting (187)
The vast majority (88.2%) of the inhabitants belong to the Roman
Catholic denomination. The second largest religious community is Islam,
to which 3.4% profess. 1.3% of the population are Protestant. 6.0% of
the inhabitants are without religious affiliation.
Bishop Johann
Ebser von Chiemsee consecrated the new church on September 20, 1433. In
addition to Mariazell and St. Wolfgang, the particularly beautifully
situated pilgrimage church of St. Leonhard ob Tamsweg was one of the
most visited places of pilgrimage in today's Austrian territory in the
late Middle Ages.
In the coat of arms letter of 1587 the coat of arms is described as
follows:
"A gold-colored or yellow shield, and under it are three
pointed rocks, one of which is higher than the other, and in the
gold-colored or yellow field ain Gämbß, with the front lions jumping
straight over to the right side, and with the hindrances on the lowest
rock steent (...)."
Blazon: "In the golden shield three pointed,
natural-colored rocks rising from left to right side by side. A chamois
jumps from the left crag over the other two crags.”
With around 450 traders and craftsmen (as of 2021), Tamsweg is
considered the economic center of the Lungau.
The shopping center
Coop Shopping Center (CSC for short) is the largest trading company in
Lungau with a sales area of 3600 m². The City Shopping Center opened its
doors in December 2013 to complement the mix of shops in the heart of
the main town. In 2018, the CSC office building was extensively
renovated and modernized. Since then it has housed one of the most
modern Eurospar markets in Austria. In addition to the City Center
Tamsweg, the cooperative Wirtschaftsverein Tamsweg eGen, which stands
behind the CSC, operates 4 other food markets in Lungau and neighboring
Styria, as well as a Shell petrol station.
The family business
Ferner Wolle was founded in 1906 and is Austria's only wool yarn
spinning mill that also produces hand knitting yarn.
The family
business founded in 1949, Ehrenreich BaugmbH (master builders and
carpenters, hardware store and building materials trade), has around 170
employees and is one of the largest private construction companies in
the state of Salzburg and one of the largest employers in the district.
The Lungau regional office of the Austrian Chamber of Commerce
serves as a contact for economic matters and the operational diversity
of the district town of Tamsweg.
Tamsweg can be reached from the east through the Murtal via the
Turracher Straße B 95 and the Murtalbahn and via Krakaudorf via the
Murtal Straße B 96.
The B 95 continues west from Tamsweg to
Mauterndorf, where it continues on the Katschberg Straße B 99 over the
Radstädter Tauern Pass to Radstadt.
The B 96 leads through the
Murtal to St. Michael im Lungau, where it also joins the B 99 via the
Katschberg to Spittal an der Drau. In St. Michael im Lungau there is
also a connection to the Tauernautobahn A 10.
Tamsweg is on the
narrow-gauge Murtalbahn and is the final stop for passenger trains
coming from Unzmarkt. The further route to Mauterndorf is only operated
in sections and privately.
Tamsweg is the district capital and thus the seat of a number of offices and authorities, such as the district administration, the chamber of labor and the district chamber of farmers. In Tamsweg there is also a district court and two elementary schools, a middle school, a federal high school, a business academy and a business school for information technology, as well as an agricultural school.
The market town of Tamsweg is the location of a regional center of
Caritas Salzburg.
The social center Lungau, in Q4 at Postplatz,
is an office community of more than 20 social institutions.
Elementary schools in Tamsweg and Seetal
middle school
Secondary Schools:
federal high school
Federal Commercial Academy
Federal commercial school for information technology
agricultural
school
state vocational school
Polytechnic School
special
school
District Authority
district court
Tax office
District Police
Command and Police Inspectorate
post office
Labor Market Service
Strucker Barracks of the Austrian Armed Forces (1st Company of JgB 8)
public hospital
retirement home
Franz Eßl (born 1957), farmer and politician
Reinhold Esterbauer
(born 1963), Roman Catholic theologian
Rafael Fingerlos (born 1986),
singer
Lisa Grill (born 2000), alpine skier
Elisabeth Grübl (born
1961), artist
Manfred Gruebl (born 1965), artist
Adolf Ritter von
Guttenberg (1839–1917), professor of forestry
Emil Ritter von
Guttenberg (1841–1941), Lieutenant Marshal and Minister of Railways
Valentin Hatheyer (1867–1957), Catholic priest and local historian
Dietbert Kowarik (born 1974), politician
The Lederwasch family of
painters lived in Tamsweg
Sandro Lindschinger (born 1985), soccer
player
Gerwald Mandl (born 1940), Austrian university lecturer and
economist
Günther Matzinger (born 1987), sprinter and middle-distance
runner
Eva Moser (1982–2019), chess player
Florian Pagitsch
(1959–2023), organist and music teacher
Benedict Pettschacher
(1634–1701), Benedictine, Rector of the University of Salzburg
Stefan
Petzner (* 1981), politician (BZÖ), author and PR consultant
Philipp
Pöllitzer (* 1940 in Mörtelsdorf), Catholic chaplain, Bishop Emeritus of
Keetmanshoop in Namibia
Max Prodinger (born 1976), tenor
Walter
Riss (1931–2001), actor
Ramona Siebenhofer (born 1991), alpine skier
Leonhard Steinwender (1889–1961), priest and resistance fighter against
National Socialism
Ingrid Stöckl (born 1969), ski racer
Franz
Zaunschirm (* 1953), university lecturer, musician and composer