__NOTOC__ Zwettl (;

Central Bavarian Central Bavarian form a subgroup of Bavarian dialects in large parts of Austria and the German state of Bavaria along the Danube river, on the northern side of the Eastern Alps. They are spoken in the ' Old Bavarian' regions of Upper Bavaria (wi ...

: ''Zwedl''; Czech: ''Světlá'') is a town and district capital of 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

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 ...

. It is chiefly known as the location of

Zwettl Abbey Zwettl Abbey (german: Stift Zwettl) is a Cistercian monastery located in Zwettl in Lower Austria, in the Diocese of St. Pölten. History Zwettl Abbey was founded in 1137 by Hadmar I of Kuenring, with Herrmann, a monk of Heiligenkreuz Abbey, as ...

, first mentioned in October 1139.

History

The name originates from Slavic "''svetla''" meaning "

glade Glade may refer to: Computing * Glade Interface Designer, a GUI designer for GTK+ and GNOME Geography *Glade (geography), open area in woodland, synonym for "clearing" **Glade skiing, skiing amongst trees ;Places in the United States * Glade, Kan ...

". Although the etymology suggests an early population of

Slavic people Slavs are the largest European ethnolinguistic group. They speak the various Slavic languages, belonging to the larger Balto-Slavic branch of the Indo-European languages. Slavs are geographically distributed throughout northern Eurasia, main ...

no archeological evidence has been found yet. Zwettl was founded by the knights of Kuenring and was first mentioned in a monastery record in 1139. It was granted

town privileges Town privileges or borough rights were important features of European towns during most of the second millennium. The city law customary in Central Europe probably dates back to Italian models, which in turn were oriented towards the tradition ...

on December 28, 1200. Today, the

Cistercian The Cistercians, () officially the Order of Cistercians ( la, (Sacer) Ordo Cisterciensis, abbreviated as OCist or SOCist), are a Catholic religious order of monks and nuns that branched off from the Benedictines and follow the Rule of Saint ...

convent in Zwettl houses the only remaining manuscript of the life of the beguine mystic

Agnes Blannbekin Agnes Blannbekin (; – 10 March 1315) was an Austrian Beguine and Christian mystic. She was also referred to as ''Saint Agnes Blannbekin'' or the ''Venerable Agnes Blannbekin'', though never beatified or canonized by the Roman Catholic Church. ...

Geography

Zwettl has a total area of 98.9 square miles (256.7 km²). The town is found in the middle of

Waldviertel The (Forest Quarter; Central Bavarian: ) is the northwestern region of the northeast Austrian state of Lower Austria. It is bounded to the south by the Danube, to the southwest by Upper Austria, to the northwest and the north by the Czech Repu ...

at the confluence of the Kamp and Zwettl rivers at the upper part of

Kamptal Kamptal is an Austrian wine, tourismus, culture and health region located in Waldviertel, Lower Austria. It is named by the river Kamp. To the north of Krems lies Langenlois, which is the main vine-town of Kamptal, the valley of the river Kamp.< ...

. After

Vienna en, Viennese , iso_code = AT-9 , registration_plate = W , postal_code_type = Postal code , postal_code = , timezone = CET , utc_offset = +1 , timezone_DST ...

and Wolfsberg in Carinthia, it is the third largest municipality in Austria by area.

Population

People

* (Johann) Michael von Puchberg (1741–1822), promoter and estate administrators of Mozart, merchant, philanthropist, born here *

Georg Ritter von Schönerer Georg Ritter von Schönerer (17 July 1842 – 14 August 1921) was an Austrian landowner and politician of the Austro-Hungarian Monarchy active in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. A major exponent of pan-Germanism and German nationalism in ...

, (1842-1921), died here *

Hugo Jury Hugo Jury (13 July 1887 – 8 May 1945) was an Austrian Nazi. He held the offices of ''Gauleiter'' of ''Reichsgau Niederdonau'' and '' Reichsstatthalter'' (Reich Governor) for Lower Austria. He committed suicide at the end of the World War II. ...

, (1887-1945), physician and National Socialist politician, lived here *

Benno Mengele Benno Mengele (11 December 1898 in Zwettl, Lower Austria – 15 September 1971 in Vienna) was an Austrian electrical engineer. Mengele studied from 1918 to 1923 at the Vienna University of Technology and worked from 1922 at the Austrian Siemens-S ...

(1898–1971), electrical engineer, born here *

Walter Nowotny Walter Nowotny (7 December 1920 – 8 November 1944) was an Austrian-born fighter ace of the Luftwaffe in World War II. He is credited with 258 aerial victories—that is, 258 aerial combat encounters resulting in ...

, (1920-1944), Luftwaffe officer, lived here *

Peter Härtling Peter Härtling (; 13 November 1933 – 10 July 2017) was a German writer, poet, publisher and journalist. He received the Order of Merit of the Federal Republic of Germany for his major contribution to German literature. Biography Härtling wa ...

, (born 1933), writer and poet, lived here *

Josef Haslinger Josef Haslinger (born July 5, 1955) is an Austrian writer. Haslinger was born in Zwettl, Lower Austria. He studied philosophy, drama and Germanic studies at the University of Vienna. He received his PhD in 1980. Since then he has been working as ...

(born 1955), writer, born here (de) * Christoph Jank (born 1973), footballer * Florian Metz, (born 1985), footballer, born here *

Andreas Haider-Maurer Andreas Haider-Maurer (; born 22 March 1987) is a retired professional tennis player from Austria. In the first round of the 2010 US Open, he forced world No. 5 Robin Söderling to a fifth set before losing the match. That same year, Haider-Mau ...

(born 1987), tennis player *

Andreas Onea Andreas Daniel Onea (born 9 July 1992) is an Austrian Paralympic swimmer. He represented Austria at the Summer Paralympics in 2012, 2016 and 2020. In 2016, he won the bronze medal in the men's 100 metre breaststroke SB8 event. Career At the ...

(born 1992), Paralympic swimmer, born here

References

External links

Zwettl Town website

Facts about Zwettl
provided by the Austrian Statistical Central Office Cities and towns in Zwettl District {{Austria-hist-stub