Freyung is a town in

Bavaria Bavaria ( ; ), officially the Free State of Bavaria (german: Freistaat Bayern, link=no ), is a state in the south-east of Germany. With an area of , Bavaria is the largest German state by land area, comprising roughly a fifth of the total lan ...

Germany Germany,, officially the Federal Republic of Germany, is a country in Central Europe. It is the second most populous country in Europe after Russia, and the most populous member state of the European Union. Germany is situated betwe ...

, capital of the

Freyung-Grafenau Freyung-Grafenau is a ''Landkreis'' (district) in Bavaria, Germany. It is bounded by (from the south and clockwise) the districts of Passau, Deggendorf and Regen, the Czech Republic and by Austria. History The district was established in 1972, by ...

district. It is situated in the

Bavarian Forest The village of Zell in the Bavarian Forest The Bavarian Forest (German: ' or ''Bayerwald''; bar, Boarischa Woid) is a wooded, low-mountain region in Bavaria, Germany that is about 100 kilometres long. It runs along the Czech border and is co ...

mountain range, near the border with

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 ...

and the

Czech Republic The Czech Republic, or simply Czechia, is a landlocked country in Central Europe. Historically known as Bohemia, it is bordered by Austria to the south, Germany to the west, Poland to the northeast, and Slovakia to the southeast. The ...

Geography

The town is situated on the southeastern rim of the

Bavarian Forest National Park The Bavarian Forest National Park (german: Nationalpark Bayerischer Wald) is a national park in the Eastern Bavarian Forest immediately on Germany's border with the Czech Republic. It was founded on 7 October 1970 as the first national park ...

near the confluence of the Saußbach and Reschbach creeks. The town centre is located about north of Passau.

History

About 1200 the Passau bishop

Wolfger von Erla Wolfger von Erla, known in Italian as Volchero (c. 1140 – 23 January 1218), was the Bishop of Passau from 1191 until 1204 and Patriarch of Aquileia thereafter until his death. He was renowned in his own time as a diplomat and peacemaker. He part ...

had Wolfstein Castle erected to control the surrounding estates he had received from the hands of the

Hohenstaufen The Hohenstaufen dynasty (, , ), also known as the Staufer, was a noble family of unclear origin that rose to rule the Duchy of Swabia from 1079, and to royal rule in the Holy Roman Empire during the Middle Ages from 1138 until 1254. The dynast ...

emperor Henry VI. A settlement was laid out beneath the castle which in 1301 was mentioned as ''Purchstol zu Wolferstein''. The later name ''Freiung'' denoted the fact that the first settlers were exempt from taxes (cf. '' Freihaus''). The nearby village of Kreuzberg received

market rights 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 ...

in 1354, which were transferred to Freyung in 1523. When the Prince-Bishopric of Passau was

secularised In sociology, secularization (or secularisation) is the transformation of a society from close identification with religious values and institutions toward non-religious values and secular institutions. The ''secularization thesis'' expresses the ...

in 1803, Freyung passed to the newly established

Electorate of Salzburg The Electorate of Salzburg (german: Kurfürstentum Salzburg or ), occasionally known as the Grand Duchy of Salzburg, was an electoral principality of the Holy Roman Empire from 1803–05, the short-lived successor state of the Prince-Archbi ...

, but upon the 1805 Peace of Pressburg was incorporated into the

Kingdom of Bavaria The Kingdom of Bavaria (german: Königreich Bayern; ; spelled ''Baiern'' until 1825) was a German state that succeeded the former Electorate of Bavaria in 1805 and continued to exist until 1918. With the unification of Germany into the German ...

. It received city rights in 1953.

Twin towns

Freyung is twinned with *

Vimperk Vimperk (; german: Winterberg) is a town in Prachatice District in the South Bohemian Region of the Czech Republic. It has about 7,300 inhabitants. The town centre is well preserved and is protected by law as an urban monument zone. Historically ...

, Czech Republic * Seewalchen am Attersee, Austria

Notable people

* Severin Freund (born 1988), ski jumper * Shkemb Miftari (born 1993), footballer

References

{{Authority control Freyung-Grafenau