Bärnbach is the smallest city of the district of

Voitsberg Voitsberg () is a small city in the district of Voitsberg in Styria, Austria, with a population of c. 9,700 . It grew upon the St. Margaret church at the Tregistbach river and was first mentioned in 1220 as Civitas. Remains of the Greisenegg ...

in the

Austria Austria, , bar, Östareich officially the Republic of Austria, is a country in the southern part of Central Europe, lying in the Eastern Alps. It is a federation of nine states, one of which is the capital, Vienna, the most populous ...

n state of

Styria Styria (german: Steiermark ; Serbo-Croatian and sl, ; hu, Stájerország) is a state (''Bundesland'') in the southeast of Austria. With an area of , Styria is the second largest state of Austria, after Lower Austria. Styria is bordered to ...

. The city is popular for its church (designed by

Friedensreich Hundertwasser Friedrich Stowasser (15 December 1928 – 19 February 2000), better known by his pseudonym Friedensreich Regentag Dunkelbunt Hundertwasser (), was an Austrian visual artist and architect who also worked in the field of environmental protection ...

), manual glass manufacturing and coal mining (surface mining). Today the coal mine is closed, because it is uneconomical.

Population

Culture and Sightseeings

Magnet of tourism is the Church of Saint Barbara (patron of miners) which was built in 1948 and was renovated by

in 1987. There is museum of history and technique of glass manufacturing in the "Stölzle Oberglas" company and a museum of castles in the castle "Altkainach".

Infrastructure

Bärnbach has a small railway station, connecting it with

Köflach Köflach is a small city in the district of Voitsberg in the Austrian state of Styria, at the foot of the Stubalpe mountain. The town has a federal stud in the village of Piber that supplies the Lipizzaner horses to the famous Spanish Riding Schoo ...

and

Graz Graz (; sl, Gradec) is the capital city of the Austrian state of Styria and second-largest city in Austria after Vienna. As of 1 January 2021, it had a population of 331,562 (294,236 of whom had principal-residence status). In 2018, the popul ...

. The nearest Autobahn (

Freeway A controlled-access highway is a type of highway that has been designed for high-speed vehicular traffic, with all traffic flow—ingress and egress—regulated. Common English terms are freeway, motorway and expressway. Other similar terms ...

) is the "A2 Südautobahn", the nearest connections are "Modriach" and "Mooskirchen" The most important Road is the "B70 Packerbundesstraße" connecting Bärnbach with

and

Villach Villach (; sl, Beljak; it, Villaco; fur, Vilac) is the seventh-largest city in Austria and the second-largest in the federal state of Carinthia. It is an important traffic junction for southern Austria and the whole Alpe-Adria region. , the po ...

. Most of the inhabitants are commuters and use the B70 to reach

. Distance to Graz: approx. 48 km

Economy

Because of the infrastructural situation industry is not very interested in Bärnbach. Exhaust manufacturer Remus have had their headquarters in the city since 1990. In former times the important industrial locations were the coal mines, the steam-powerplant "Voitsberg III" and the glassworks. The powerplant was closed in 2006 and the deconstruction began 2013. Today the glassworks closed the industrial production section, but the

glassblowing Glassblowing is a glassforming technique that involves inflating molten glass into a bubble (or parison) with the aid of a Blowpipe (tool), blowpipe (or blow tube). A person who blows glass is called a ''glassblower'', ''glassmith'', or ''gaffer'' ...

and glass art section are still existing. Most of the people work in neighbouring cities or in

. Bärnbach also has a

mall Mall commonly refers to a: * Shopping mall * Strip mall * Pedestrian street * Esplanade Mall or MALL may also refer to: Places Shopping complexes * The Mall (Sofia) (Tsarigradsko Mall), Sofia, Bulgaria * The Mall, Patna, Patna, Bihar, India * M ...

, called WEZ (Weststeirisches Einkaufszentrum = Weststyrian Shopping centre) which is the biggest mall in the district.

References

External links

Website of Bärnbach
Cities and towns in Voitsberg District {{Styria-geo-stub