Pürgg-Trautenfels is a former municipality in the district of

Liezen Liezen (Central Bavarian: ''Liezn'') is a municipality in the Austrian federal state of Styria, district capital of the district of the same name and economic center on the River Enns. Population Politics Since 1995, the left-wing SPÖ party ...

in Styria,

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 ...

. Since the 2015 Styria municipal structural reform, it is part of the municipality

Stainach-Pürgg Stainach-Pürgg is a municipality since 2015 in the Liezen District of Styria, Austria. It was created as part of the Styria municipal structural reform, at the end of 2014, by merging the former towns Stainach and Pürgg-Trautenfels. Geogra ...

.Die neue Gemeindestruktur der Steiermark
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Geography

Pürgg-Trautenfels lies in valley of the upper Ennstal between

Gröbming Gröbming is a municipality in the district of Liezen in Styria, 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 federati ...

and

Stainach Stainach is a former municipality in the district of Liezen in the Austrian state of Styria. Since the 2015 Styria municipal structural reform The Styria municipal structural reform (German: ''Steiermärkische Gemeindestrukturreform'') was a loc ...

. The municipal area is bordered in the south by the Enns; in the north it stretches right up to the main ridge Toten Gebirges (Almkogel, 2,116m elevation). The highest point of the municipality is the

Grimming The Grimming (2,351 m, ) is an isolated mountain, peak in the Dachstein Mountains of Austria and one of the few ultra-prominent mountains of the Alps. Geography Location The Grimming rises between the Enns valley and Salzkammergut, east o ...

(2,351 m) in the west.

Pürgg

The village of Pürgg lies on a small plateau in the south face of the Rantensteins, about 150 m above the valley floor of the brook Grimmingbach. The village has a few narrow streets which are largely for pedestrian traffic only. The houses are situated around two churches: *''Pfarrkirche zum Heiligen Georg'' (Church of St. George): A

Romanesque church Romanesque architecture is an architectural style of medieval Europe characterized by semi-circular arches. There is no consensus for the beginning date of the Romanesque style, with proposals ranging from the 6th to the 11th century, this later ...

which was reputedly established on 17 July 1130. The three-nave church is still standing in its basic structure, however, it was decorated at the beginning of 14th century in the

Gothic Gothic or Gothics may refer to: People and languages *Goths or Gothic people, the ethnonym of a group of East Germanic tribes **Gothic language, an extinct East Germanic language spoken by the Goths **Crimean Gothic, the Gothic language spoken b ...

style. *''Johanneskapelle'' (Chapel of St. John): A Romanesque chapel on the eastern edge of the plateau, this chapel has

frescoes Fresco (plural ''frescos'' or ''frescoes'') is a technique of mural painting executed upon freshly laid ("wet") lime plaster. Water is used as the vehicle for the dry-powder pigment to merge with the plaster, and with the setting of the plaster ...

from the 12th century which count among most well preserved in Europe.

Trautenfels

The village of Trautenfels is a small settlement around the Schloss Trautenfels, situated directly on the Enns. The castle is on a small hill which rises about 30 meters above the valley floor. In 1261 it was called a castle (''Burg'') for the first time. In the baroque era it was given its present appearance by Friedrich von Trauttmannsdorf. A short distance to the west of the castle, on the same ridge, there lie the ruins of the Protestant church Neuhaus. This was, at the time of the

Reformation The Reformation (alternatively named the Protestant Reformation or the European Reformation) was a major movement within Western Christianity in 16th-century Europe that posed a religious and political challenge to the Catholic Church and in ...

, the most significant religious center in the Upper Ennstal Valley. The church was established by the castle owners in Trautenfels. But later fell victim to the Counter-Reformation. In 1991, the remnants of the building were exposed and furnished as a memorial.

Economy

Trautenfels Castle and the village of Pürgg attract tourists and day trippers. The region is also visited by climbers, who set out from here on mountain tours to the

, into the

Totes Gebirge The Totes Gebirge is a group of mountains in Austria, part of the Northern Limestone Alps, lying between the Salzkammergut and the Ennstaler Alpen. The name ''Totes Gebirge'' is derived from the German words ''tot'' meaning "dead", referring to ...

and the

Niedere Tauern The Lower TauernThe New Encyclopædia Britannica, Vol. 1, 2003, p. 86. or Niedere Tauern () are a mountain range of the Central Eastern Alps, in the Austrian states of Salzburg and Styria. For the etymology of the name, see Tauern. Geography ...

to the south. In the ''Wörschachwald'' there is a small

ski resort A ski resort is a resort developed for skiing, snowboarding, and other winter sports. In Europe, most ski resorts are towns or villages in or adjacent to a ski area – a mountainous area with pistes (ski trails) and a ski lift system. In Nort ...

and the Spechtensee lake.

References

External links

*
The Joanneum - Schloss Trautenfels
Cities and towns in Liezen District {{Styria-geo-stub