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.
History
The Lungau was settled by Slavs
from around 600 and by Bavarians from around 700. The name is
mentioned in a document around 1156 as Taemswich and could come from
a Mr. 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 donated the church and half of the market to the
cathedral chapter. Even then Tamsweg was likely to have been its own
parish. A church is first mentioned in a document in 1231, at that
time still as a subsidiary 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.
A setback occurred in 1490 when Tamsweg in the course
of the wars of Emperor Frederick III. against the Hungarian King
Matthias Corvinus, whose troops had established themselves in the
fortified St. Leonhard's Church, was pillaged and plundered by
imperial troops. The Reformation also brought a decline in
pilgrimages, which only took off 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 place a
market coat of arms in 1587. The oldest verifiable weekly market
privilege dates back to 1416; however, the market law should go back
to the time of the Pettauer.
From around 1700 there was a
brisk trade in salt and iron, which was an important source of
income for the Tamsweg citizens for more than 200 years.
In
1797, Tamsweg was occupied by French troops in the First Coalition
War and had to pillage 4518 guilders. In addition, 222 oxen and
large quantities of food and feed were requisitioned.
After
the Treaty of Luneville, the previous archbishopric of Salzburg came
to Austria as crown land, and with it Tamsweg. The 19th century
brought a decline into insignificance for the region, which was
accompanied by a decline in population, poverty and development
deficits.
The region did not experience a boom again until
the turn of the 20th century, so the Murtalbahn was opened in 1894,
an electricity station and a water pipe were built in 1897 and the
hospital opened in 1908.
In 1936 six surrounding rural
communities were incorporated and the community area expanded to the
size it is today.