Thörl is a

market town A market town is a settlement most common in Europe that obtained by custom or royal charter, in the Middle Ages, a market right, which allowed it to host a regular market; this distinguished it from a village or city. In Britain, small rural ...

at the foot of the

Hochschwab The Hochschwab in the Upper Styria Upper Styria (german: Obersteiermark), in the Austrian usage of the term, refers exclusively to the northwestern, generally mountainous and well-wooded half of the federal state of Styria. The southwestern half ...

in the

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 ...

n district of Bruck-Mürzzuschlag.

Geography

Boroughs

Thörl has eight boroughs: Etmißl, Fölz, Hinterberg, Lonschitz, Oisching, Palbersdorf, St. Ilgen, and Thörl.

Neighboring Communes

* in the north:

Mariazell Mariazell (Central Bavarian: ''Mariazöö'') is an Austrian city in the southeastern state of Styria. Well known for being a hub of winter sports and a pilgrimage destination, it is located north of Graz. It is picturesquely situated in the valle ...

* in the east: Turnau and

Aflenz Aflenz is since January 2015 a new market town with 2,421 residents (as of 1 January 2016) in Bruck-Mürzzuschlag District of Styria, Austria. The municipality was founded as part of the Styria municipal structural reform, on 31 December 2014, ...

* in the south:

Kapfenberg Kapfenberg , with around 22,609 inhabitants, is the third largest city in Styria, Austria, near Bruck an der Mur. The town's landmark is Burg Oberkapfenberg. Its main employer is the steel manufacturer Böhler. The town has a swimming complex, ...

* in the southwest and west:

Tragöß-Sankt Katharein Tragöß-Sankt Katharein is since 2015 a new municipality in Bruck-Mürzzuschlag District in Styria, Austria, which had merged after 31 December 2014 the independent municipalities Tragöß and St. Katharein an der Laming. This merger was pa ...

* in the northwest:

Wildalpen Wildalpen is a municipality in the district of Liezen in the Austrian 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 , St ...

History

As of 1 January 2015 the formerly independent municipalities

Sankt Ilgen Sankt Ilgen was a municipality in the district of Bruck-Mürzzuschlag in Styria, Austria. As of 1 January 2015 it has been incorporated into Thörl Thörl is a market town at the foot of the Hochschwab in the Styrian district of Bruck-Mürzz ...

and

Etmißl Etmißl was an Austrian municipality in the District of Bruck-Mürzzuschlag, Styria. As of 1 January 2015 it has been incorporated into Thörl. Geography Etmißl is located in a side valley of the Hochschwab The Hochschwab in the Upper Styria ...

were incorporated into Thörl. Already in 1955 the municipality Fölz bei Thörl had become part of the municipality.

Politics

Thörl's mayor is Günther Wagner of the

SPÖ The Social Democratic Party of Austria (german: Sozialdemokratische Partei Österreichs , SPÖ), founded and known as the Social Democratic Workers' Party of Austria (german: link=no, Sozialdemokratische Arbeiterpartei Österreichs, SDAPÖ) unti ...

. In its municipal council (15 seats) the party seats are distributed as follows: 9

, 3

ÖVP The Austrian People's Party (german: Österreichische Volkspartei , ÖVP ) is a Christian-democratic and liberal-conservative political party in Austria. Since December 2021, the party has been led provisionally by Karl Nehammer. It is currentl ...

, 2 Freie Unabhängige Liste - Lebenswert, 1

FPÖ The Freedom Party of Austria (german: Freiheitliche Partei Österreichs, FPÖ) is a right-wing populist and national-conservative political party in Austria. It was led by Norbert Hofer from September 2019 to 1 June 2021.Staff (1 June 2021"Aust ...

.Municipal council mandates
/ref>

Twin towns and sister cities

Thörl is twinned with: *

Ljubečna Ljubečna () is a settlement in the City Municipality of Celje in eastern Slovenia. It is an urbanized settlement on the northeastern outskirts of Celje. The area is part of the traditional region of Lower Styria, Styria. It is now included with th ...

, Slovenia

Traffic

Streets

The Mariazeller Straße is the most important road link between

and

, the most popular pilgrimage site in Austria. In its further course it leads to

Sankt Pölten Sankt Pölten (; Central Bavarian: ''St. Pödn''), mostly abbreviated to the official name St. Pölten, is the capital and largest city of the State of Lower Austria in northeast Austria, with 55,538 inhabitants as of 1 January 2020. St. Pölten ...

, the capital of the neighbouring state of

Lower Austria Lower Austria (german: Niederösterreich; Austro-Bavarian: ''Niedaöstareich'', ''Niedaestareich'') is one of the nine states of Austria, located in the northeastern corner of the country. Since 1986, the capital of Lower Austria has been Sankt P ...

Railway (History)

In 1893, the

Thörlerbahn The Thörlerbahn was a gauge narrow-gauge railway, operated by the between Kapfenberg and - in Austria. It connected the region around Aflenz in the Obersteiermark with the southern main line at Kapfenberg. History The railway was originally ...

, a narrow gauge railway with a track gauge of 760 mm, which linked the area with Kapfenberg and the

Austrian Southern Railway The Austrian Southern Railway (german: link=no, Österreichische Südbahn) is a long double track railway, which linked the capital Vienna with Trieste, former main seaport of the Austro-Hungarian Monarchy, by railway for the first time. It now ...

(Südbahn), was opened. In particular, the local iron industry benefited from this. A connection to the

Austrian Western Railway The Western Railway (german: Westbahn) is a two-track, partly four-track, electrified railway line in Austria that runs from Vienna to Salzburg via St. Pölten and Linz Hauptbahnhof and is one of the major lines of Austria. It was originally opene ...

was planned, but never realized. In 1959, the passenger traffic was terminated. However, in 1991, the ''Verein Thörlerbahn'' (''Thörlerbahn Association'') took out a trial run with a nostalgic train. But when a bank failure bankrupted the local iron industry, the operator of the railway, Steiermärkische Landesbahnen, lost their largest (and actually the only) freight customer. As a consequence of that, they had to close the track. In 2003 and 2004, the train tracks were removed and replaced by a cycle track.

References

Cities and towns in Bruck-Mürzzuschlag District {{Styria-geo-stub