Bergheim is a municipality in the district of

Salzburg-Umgebung The Bezirk Salzburg-Umgebung (German, "surrounding area of Salzburg") is an administrative district ('' Bezirk'') in the federal state of Salzburg, Austria, and congruent with the Flachgau region (), except for the Statutarstadt of Salzburg, whic ...

in the state of

Salzburg Salzburg (, ; literally "Salt-Castle"; bar, Soizbuag, label= Austro-Bavarian) is the fourth-largest city in Austria. In 2020, it had a population of 156,872. The town is on the site of the Roman settlement of ''Iuvavum''. Salzburg was founded ...

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 ...

. The Plainberg with its Maria Plain

pilgrimage church A pilgrimage church (german: Wallfahrtskirche) is a church to which pilgrimages are regularly made, or a church along a pilgrimage route, like the Way of St. James, that is visited by pilgrims. Pilgrimage churches are often located by the grave ...

forms the border between Bergheim and the city of

to the south.

History

The area occupied by modern-day Bergheim has been constantly inhabited since Paleolithic times (10,000 B.C.), as evidenced by archeological finds on Muntigler Hill. Other finds from the

Neolithic The Neolithic period, or New Stone Age, is an Old World archaeological period and the final division of the Stone Age. It saw the Neolithic Revolution, a wide-ranging set of developments that appear to have arisen independently in several p ...

(3rd century B.C.) point to uninterrupted inhabitation of the area from prehistoric times onward. In the first century, B.C., the

Celts The Celts (, see pronunciation for different usages) or Celtic peoples () are. "CELTS location: Greater Europe time period: Second millennium B.C.E. to present ancestry: Celtic a collection of Indo-European peoples. "The Celts, an ancien ...

began settling in the area. The Celtic kingdom of

Noricum Noricum () is the Latin name for the Celtic kingdom or federation of tribes that included most of modern Austria and part of Slovenia. In the first century AD, it became a province of the Roman Empire. Its borders were the Danube to the north, ...

was incorporated into the

Roman Empire The Roman Empire ( la, Imperium Romanum ; grc-gre, Βασιλεία τῶν Ῥωμαίων, Basileía tôn Rhōmaíōn) was the post- Republican period of ancient Rome. As a polity, it included large territorial holdings around the Mediter ...

in 16 B.C. Two Roman manors believed to date from this period have been excavated in nearby Kerath and Kemating. In the year 488 B.C. the Romans withdrew on the orders of King Odoacer. Around the year 650 the Germanic Bavarii began to settle in the Salzburg area. One of the largest burial grounds in the

Flachgau The Bezirk Salzburg-Umgebung (German language, German, "surrounding area of Salzburg") is an administrative district (''Bezirk'') in the federal state of Salzburg (state), Salzburg, Austria, and congruent with the Flachgau region (), except for t ...

district, unearthed in 1896 near the parish church, dates from this period. The name Bergheim is believed to have originated during this period, the syllable ''-heim'' being a typical place name given by the Bavarii. The earliest documented appearance of the name dates from 927 A.D. in a title transferring ownership of the church and its goods from Archbishop Adalbert to a Deacon Reginold. In the 12th and 13th centuries, the Lords of Bergheim held important positions in the Archbishopric of Salzburg, benefitting the municipality with fishing rights and the right to tithe and hold court. After the ruling Bergheim and Radecker families died out in the late 14th century, ownership transferred to the Archbishopric of Salzburg and the law court was moved to Radeck. During the

Napoleonic Wars The Napoleonic Wars (1803–1815) were a series of major global conflicts pitting the French Empire and its allies, led by Napoleon I, against a fluctuating array of European states formed into various coalitions. It produced a period of Fren ...

(1792-1815) much of Bergheim was destroyed as the French Army crossed the Salzach River at Laufen and laid siege to Salzburg. When 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 ...

ceded the state of Salzburg to

in 1816, Bergheim became a border town and has remained on the Austrian-German border ever since.

References

Cities and towns in Salzburg-Umgebung District {{Salzburg-geo-stub