Sankt Pölten (;

Central Bavarian Central or Middle 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 ...

: ''St. Pödn''), mostly abbreviated to the official name St. Pölten, is the capital and largest city of the

State State most commonly refers to: * State (polity), a centralized political organization that regulates law and society within a territory **Sovereign state, a sovereign polity in international law, commonly referred to as a country **Nation state, a ...

Lower Austria Lower Austria ( , , abbreviated LA or NÖ) is one of the nine states of Austria, located in the northeastern corner of the country. Major cities are Amstetten, Lower Austria, Amstetten, Krems an der Donau, Wiener Neustadt and Sankt Pölten, which ...

in northeast Austria, with 55,538 inhabitants as of 1 January 2020. St. Pölten is a city with its own statute (or '' Statutarstadt'') and therefore it is both a municipality and a district in the ''

Mostviertel ''Mostviertel'' (; English: Most (wine), Most'' Quarter') is the southwestern quarter of the four quarters of Lower Austria (the northeast state of the 9 states in Austria). It is bordered on the north by the Danube and to the south and west ...

''. Due to its cultural status, it has recently enjoyed an increase of visitors passing through Sankt Pölten on their way to Vienna.

Geography

The city lies on the Traisen river and is located north of the Alps and south of the

Wachau The Wachau () is an Austrian valley formed by the Danube River. It is one of the most prominent tourism in Austria, tourist destinations of Lower Austria, located between the towns of Melk and Krems an der Donau, Krems that attracts epicureans ...

. It is part of the ''Mostviertel'', the southwest region of Lower Austria.

Subdistricts

St Pölten is divided into the following subdistricts: Altmannsdorf, Dörfl at Ochsenburg, Eggendorf, Ganzendorf, Hafing, Harland, Hart, Kreisberg, Matzersdorf, Mühlgang, Nadelbach, Oberradlberg, Oberwagram, Oberzwischenbrunn, Ochsenburg, Pengersdorf, Pottenbrunn, Pummersdorf, Ragelsdorf, Ratzersdorf at the Traisen, Reitzersdorf, Schwadorf, Spratzern, St Georgen on the Steinfelde, St Pölten, Stattersdorf, Steinfeld, Teufelhof, Unterradlberg, Unterwagram, Unterzwischenbrunn, Viehofen, Völtendorf, Waitzendorf, Wasserburg, Weitern, Wetzersdorf, Windpassing, Witzendorf, Wolfenberg, Wörth and Zwerndorf.

Transport

The city's main railway station, St. Pölten Hauptbahnhof, is located directly on the West railway of the ÖBB and is also the terminus of the Leobersdorfer Railway, the Mariazellerbahn, the regional railway to Tulln and the regional railway to Krems. It is at the intersection of the Western Motorway A1 and the Kremser Speedway S33, and is traversed by the Vienna Road B1. St Pölten is a junction of the ''Wieselbus'' bus lines, which provides radial connections between the capital and the different regions of Lower Austria.

In the city

Between 1911 and 1976, a

tram A tram (also known as a streetcar or trolley in Canada and the United States) is an urban rail transit in which Rolling stock, vehicles, whether individual railcars or multiple-unit trains, run on tramway tracks on urban public streets; some ...

line operated in St Pölten. Today, a network of eleven bus lines operates at regular intervals within the city. Every summer, a free tourist train in the city centre connects the ancient parts of the city with the government district.

Climate

History

The oldest part of the city is built on the site of the ancient Roman city of ''Aelium Cetium'' that existed between the 2nd and the 4th century AD. A

Benedictine The Benedictines, officially the Order of Saint Benedict (, abbreviated as O.S.B. or OSB), are a mainly contemplative monastic order of the Catholic Church for men and for women who follow the Rule of Saint Benedict. Initiated in 529, th ...

monastery was founded in 791; in the year 799, it was called ''Treisma''. St Pölten did not become a town until 1050, and officially became a city in 1169. Until 1494, St Pölten was part of the diocese of Passau, and then became the property of the state. In 1081 it hosted the Augustinian ''Chorherren'', and in 1784 their '' Kollegiatsstift'' closed. Since 1785, this building has hosted the cathedral of St Pölten. The city replaced

Vienna Vienna ( ; ; ) is the capital city, capital, List of largest cities in Austria, most populous city, and one of Federal states of Austria, nine federal states of Austria. It is Austria's primate city, with just over two million inhabitants. ...

as the capital of Lower Austria with a resolution by the Lower Austrian parliament on 10 July 1986. The Lower Austrian government has been hosted in St Pölten since 1997. The name ''Sankt Pölten'' is derived from St.

Hippolytus of Rome Hippolytus of Rome ( , ; Romanized: , – ) was a Bishop of Rome and one of the most important second–third centuries Christian theologians, whose provenance, identity and corpus remain elusive to scholars and historians. Suggested communitie ...

martyr A martyr (, ''mártys'', 'witness' Word stem, stem , ''martyr-'') is someone who suffers persecution and death for advocating, renouncing, or refusing to renounce or advocate, a religious belief or other cause as demanded by an external party. In ...

ed early

Church Father The Church Fathers, Early Church Fathers, Christian Fathers, or Fathers of the Church were ancient and influential Christian theologians and writers who established the intellectual and doctrinal foundations of Christianity. The historical per ...

). The city was renamed to ''Sankt Hippolyt'', then clipped to ''St Polyt'', and finally ''St Pölten''.

Politics

Municipal council

The municipal council consists of 42 members and since the municipal elections in 2016 it consists of the following parties: * 26

Social Democratic Party of Austria The Social Democratic Party of Austria ( , SPÖ) is a social democratic political party in Austria. Founded in 1889 as the Social Democratic Workers' Party of Austria (, SDAPÖ) and later known as the Socialist Party of Austria () from 1945 unt ...

(SPÖ) – the mayor and the first vice mayor * 9

Austrian People's Party The Austrian People's Party ( , ÖVP ) is a Christian-democratic and liberal-conservative political party in Austria. Since January 2025, the party has been led by Christian Stocker (as an acting leader). It is currently the second-largest p ...

(ÖVP) – the second vice mayor * 6

FPÖ The Freedom Party of Austria (, FPÖ) is a political party in Austria, variously described as far-right, right-wing populist, national-conservative, and Eurosceptic. It has been led by Herbert Kickl since 2021. It is the largest of five par ...

* 1

The Greens – The Green Alternative The Greens – The Green Alternative (, ) is a green political party in Austria. The Greens currently sit in opposition. Formerly, they were part of the Schallenberg government, the Second Kurz government, and the Nehammer government. It won ...

City's senate

The city's senate consists of 11 members: * SPÖ: Martin Fuhs, Mag. Renate Gamsjäger, Engineer Franz Gunacker, Robert Laimer, Wolfgang Nowak, Mag. Johann Rankl, Mag. Ingrid Heihs * ÖVP: Alfred Neuhauser, Josef Fraberger * FPÖ * Greens: Silvia Buschenreiter

Mayor

On 9 July 2004 the municipal council elected the former senator for culture Mag. Matthias Stadler (

SPÖ The Social Democratic Party of Austria ( , SPÖ) is a social democratic political party in Austria. Founded in 1889 as the Social Democratic Workers' Party of Austria (, SDAPÖ) and later known as the Socialist Party of Austria () from 1945 unt ...

) as the new mayor of St Pölten. The first vice mayor is Susanne Kysela (SPÖ); the second vice mayor is Johannes Sassmann (ÖVP).

Coat of arms, colours and seals

The

arms Arms or ARMS may refer to: *Arm or arms, the upper limbs of the body Arm, Arms, or ARMS may also refer to: People * Ida A. T. Arms (1856–1931), American missionary-educator, temperance leader Coat of arms or weapons *Armaments or weapons **Fi ...

blazon In heraldry and heraldic vexillology, a blazon is a formal description of a coat of arms, flag or similar emblem, from which the reader can reconstruct an accurate image. The verb ''to blazon'' means to create such a description. The visual d ...

is silver and azure; on the right a fess gules, on the left a

wolf The wolf (''Canis lupus''; : wolves), also known as the grey wolf or gray wolf, is a Canis, canine native to Eurasia and North America. More than thirty subspecies of Canis lupus, subspecies of ''Canis lupus'' have been recognized, includin ...

rampant silver langued gules and armed Or. The colours of the city are red and yellow. The seal of the city contains its coat of arms surrounded by the text Landeshauptstadt St. Pölten. The administration's seal of the magistrate also contains the city's coat of arms with the text Magistrat der Stadt St. Pölten.

Economy

As of 15 May 2001, 40,041 people worked in 2,711 companies in the city. 23 of those companies are large-scale enterprises with more than 200 employees each.

Media

Several media companies are based in St Pölten. These are "@cetera", a literary-cultural magazine; "City-Flyer", an online magazine describing the cultural offerings of the city, which is published on paper monthly; "Campus Radio", a radio station from the University of Applied Sciences; "HiT FM", a radio station broadcasting in Lower Austria; "LetHereBeRock", an online youth magazine about the alternative rock scene; '' NÖN'', a Lower Austrian newspaper; the Austrian Broadcasting Corporation for Lower Austria; and the local television channel "P3tv".

Large-scale enterprises

The largest companies based in St Pölten are the furniture producer Leiner, the paper manufacturer Salzer, and the family owned engineering conglomerate Voith.

Public facilities

Educational facilities

* ''Bundesgymnasium'' and ''Bundesrealgymnasium'' St. Pölten (public gymnasium) * Public educational facility for kindergarten pedagogy and social pedagogy * Public economics school and economics academy * '' Bundesreal- and Bundesoberstufenrealgymnasium'' (BORG) Schulring (public high-level gymnasium) * St. Pölten University of Applied Sciences (fields: computer simulation, media management, social work, telecommunication and media) * Public higher educational facility for professions in economics and school for social professions * Public higher technical educational facility and laboratory (fields: EDP and organisation, electronics, electrical engineering, machine engineering, economic engineering) with

university of applied sciences A vocational university or university of applied sciences (UAS), less commonly called a polytechnic university is an institution of higher education and increasingly research that provides applied professional education and grants academic de ...

for machine construction * New Design University (interior architecture and graphics design) * Lower Austrian state academy * Philosophical-theological university *

Folk high school Folk high schools (also ''adult education center'') are institutions for adult education that generally do not grant academic degrees, though certain courses might exist leading to that goal. They are most commonly found in Nordic countries and i ...

* Lower Austrian institute for promotion of economy development (''WIFI'')

Leisure and sports sites

Swimming is available at Aquacity (indoor

swimming pool A swimming pool, swimming bath, wading pool, paddling pool, or simply pool, is a structure designed to hold water to enable Human swimming, swimming and associated activities. Pools can be built into the ground (in-ground pools) or built abo ...

), the St. Pölten outdoor swimming pool and Ratzersdorf Lake (a bathing pond where a nudist beach,

beach volleyball Beach volleyball is a team sport played by two teams of two to four players each on a sand court divided by a net. Similar to indoor volleyball, the objective of the game is to send the ball over the net and to ground it on the opponent's side o ...

, and

miniature golf Miniature golf (also known as minigolf, putt-putt, crazy golf, and by #Nomenclature, several other names) is an offshoot of the sport of golf focusing solely on the putting aspect of its parent game. The aim of the game is to score the lowest ...

are available). For fitness training there is the ''City-Treff - Pueblo'', the ''Lifeline'', the ''Reebok'' and the ''Seepark''. In addition, the city has: *

American Football American football, referred to simply as football in the United States and Canada and also known as gridiron football, is a team sport played by two teams of eleven players on a rectangular American football field, field with goalposts at e ...

Club - St. Pölten Invaders *

Badminton Badminton is a racquet sport played using racket (sports equipment), racquets to hit a shuttlecock across a net (device), net. Although it may be played with larger teams, the most common forms of the game are "singles" (with one player per s ...

Club *

Golf club A golf club is a club used to hit a golf ball in a game of golf. Each club is composed of a shaft with a grip and a club head. Woods are mainly used for long-distance fairway or tee shots; irons, the most versatile class, are used for a variety o ...

St. Pölten * Skittles at the leisure park Megafun *

Miniature golf Miniature golf (also known as minigolf, putt-putt, crazy golf, and by #Nomenclature, several other names) is an offshoot of the sport of golf focusing solely on the putting aspect of its parent game. The aim of the game is to score the lowest ...

at the Tennis-Allround Center *

Model aircraft A model aircraft is a physical model of an existing or imagined aircraft, and is built typically for display, research, or amusement. Model aircraft are divided into two basic groups: flying and non-flying. Non-flying models are also termed s ...

airport of the ''BSV VOITH'' * Riding club St. Pölten-Wagram *

Shooting range A shooting range, firing range, gun range or shooting ground is a specialized facility, venue, or field designed specifically for firearm usage qualifications, training, practice, or competitions. Some shooting ranges are operated by milita ...

of the private ''Schützenkompagnie'' *

Skatepark A skatepark, or skate park, is a purpose-built recreational environment made for skateboarding, BMX, Freestyle scootering, scootering, and aggressive inline skating. A skatepark may contain half-pipes, handrails, funboxes, vert ramps, stairw ...

Gliding Gliding is a recreational activity and competitive air sports, air sport in which pilots fly glider aircraft, unpowered aircraft known as Glider (sailplane), gliders or sailplanes using naturally occurring currents of rising air in the atmospher ...

club St. Pölten St Pölten hosts a primary base of the Lower Austrian state sports school.

Tennis

Every year in the third week of May an

ATP 250 The ATP 250 tournaments (previously known as the ''ATP World Tour 250'' tournaments, ''ATP International Series'', and ''ATP World Series'') are the lowest tier of annual men's tennis tournaments on the main ATP Tour, after the four Grand Slam (t ...

tournament takes place in St Pölten. There are multiple local tennis stadiums, including the Arena im Aufeld, the tennis centre Allround, the tennis courts by the local ice sport association 1872, the courts in St. Georgen, the courts at the Ratzersdorfer Pond, the courts in the Lower Austrian state sports school and the courts of the leisure park Megafun.

International relations

Twin towns – Sister cities

St Pölten is twinned with the following cities: * Altoona,

Pennsylvania Pennsylvania, officially the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, is a U.S. state, state spanning the Mid-Atlantic (United States), Mid-Atlantic, Northeastern United States, Northeastern, Appalachian, and Great Lakes region, Great Lakes regions o ...

, USA, (since 2000) *

Brno Brno ( , ; ) is a Statutory city (Czech Republic), city in the South Moravian Region of the Czech Republic. Located at the confluence of the Svitava (river), Svitava and Svratka (river), Svratka rivers, Brno has about 403,000 inhabitants, making ...

, Czech Republic, (since 1990) * Clichy,

Hauts-de-Seine Hauts-de-Seine (; ) is a department in the Île-de-France region of France. It covers Paris's western inner suburbs. It is bordered by Paris, Seine-Saint-Denis and Val-de-Marne to the east, Val-d'Oise to the north, Yvelines to the west and ...

Île-de-France The Île-de-France (; ; ) is the most populous of the eighteen regions of France, with an official estimated population of 12,271,794 residents on 1 January 2023. Centered on the capital Paris, it is located in the north-central part of the cou ...

, France, (since 1968) * Heidenheim,

Baden-Württemberg Baden-Württemberg ( ; ), commonly shortened to BW or BaWü, is a states of Germany, German state () in Southwest Germany, east of the Rhine, which forms the southern part of Germany's western border with France. With more than 11.07 million i ...

, Germany, (since 1967) * Kurashiki, Japan, (since 1957) *

Wuhan Wuhan; is the capital of Hubei, China. With a population of over eleven million, it is the most populous city in Hubei and the List of cities in China by population, eighth-most-populous city in China. It is also one of the nine National cent ...

, China, (since 2005)

Culture and objects of interest

Theatres

* Lower Austrian state theatre * Bühne im Hof * Festspielhaus St. Pölten

Museums

* Diocese museum St. Pölten * Museum im Hof * Lower Austrian state museum * Lower Austrian documentation institute for modern art * Private museum "Wilhelmsburger ornament and utensil dishes" * City museum St. Pölten

Others

* Repertory theatre Cinema Paradiso * Former

synagogue A synagogue, also called a shul or a temple, is a place of worship for Jews and Samaritans. It is a place for prayer (the main sanctuary and sometimes smaller chapels) where Jews attend religious services or special ceremonies such as wed ...

* ''Klangturm'' (tower), the city's landmark * ''Stadtsäle'' (public event hall) * Youth culture hall ''frei.raum'' * VAZ (Veranstaltungszentrum, event-centre) * ''Drunter & Drüber'' (≈"haywire"; "higgledy-piggledy"; "topsy-turvy"), a pub in the inner city * Tonkünstler Orchestra * Business Center Niederösterreich * ''Apotheke zum goldenen Löwen'' (pharmacy since 1545), oldest shop in town, famous

baroque The Baroque ( , , ) is a Western Style (visual arts), style of Baroque architecture, architecture, Baroque music, music, Baroque dance, dance, Baroque painting, painting, Baroque sculpture, sculpture, poetry, and other arts that flourished from ...

facing

Regular events

* ATP tennis tournament * Cinema at the cathedral (''Film am Dom'') * Capital city festival * International culture and film festival * Parliament festival * St Pölten festival weeks "''Klangweile''" * St Pölten ''Höfefest'' * FM4 Frequency Festival * Pro Golf Tour tournament

Notable people

* Jakob Prandtauer (1660-1726), an Austrian Baroque architect, died locally. * Ernst Stöhr (1860–1917), painter, graphic artist, writer and founding member of the Vienna Secession. * Julius Raab, (1891–1964), conservative politician,

Chancellor of Austria The chancellor of Austria, officially the federal chancellor of the Republic of Austria (), is the head of government of the Austria, Republic of Austria. List of chancellors of Austria, Twenty-nine people have served as chancellor. The curre ...

, 1953–1961 * Walter Fischer (1901–1978), medical doctor, journalist, radio broadcaster, poet and resistance fighter * Maria Emhart (1901-1981), resistance activist, survived the Hitler years and became a national politician (SPÖ) * Otto Demus (1902-1990), art historian and Byzantinist; member of the Vienna School of Art History * Walter Graf (1903–1982), musicologist * Heinrich Maier (1908–1945), priest and resistance fighter against Nazi Germany, attended local gymnasium * Bernhard Wicki (1919–2000), Austrian-Swiss actor, film director and screenwriter * Karl Österreicher (1923–1995), conductor, music educator, died locally * Peter Minich (1927–2013), stage actor who became a tenor performing in operas, operettas and musical films *

Jörg Demus Jörg Wolfgang Demus (2 December 1928 – 16 April 2019) was an Austrian classical pianist who appeared internationally and made many recordings. He was also a composer and a lecturer at music academies. In composition and playing, he focused on ...

, (1928–2019), Austrian classical pianist *

Lolita ''Lolita'' is a 1955 novel written by Russian-American novelist Vladimir Nabokov. The protagonist and narrator is a French literature professor who moves to New England and writes under the pseudonym Humbert Humbert. He details his obsession ...

(1931–2010), singer and actress * Erwin Leder, (born 1951), actor e.g. ''

Das Boot (; ) is a 1981 West Germany, West German war film written and directed by Wolfgang Petersen, produced by Günter Rohrbach, and starring Jürgen Prochnow, Herbert Grönemeyer and Klaus Wennemann. An Film adaptation, adaptation of Lothar-Günthe ...

'' & ''

Underworld The underworld, also known as the netherworld or hell, is the supernatural world of the dead in various religious traditions and myths, located below the world of the living. Chthonic is the technical adjective for things of the underworld. ...

'' *

Alfred Gusenbauer Alfred Gusenbauer (; born 8 February 1960) is an Austrian politician who until 2008 spent his entire professional life as an employee of the Social Democratic Party of Austria (SPÖ) or as a parliamentary representative. He headed the SPÖ from 2 ...

, (born 1960), politician (SPÖ) and former

, 2007/2008 * Martin Fiala, (DE Wiki) ((born 1961) Austrian composer. * Oliver Stummvoll (born 1995), model * The Clairvoyants (founded 2011), (Thommy Ten and Amélie van Tass) magician and mentalist duo.

Sport

* Franz Binder (1911–1989), a footballer and coach; played 242 games and 28 for

Austria Austria, formally the Republic of Austria, is a landlocked country in Central Europe, lying in the Eastern Alps. It is a federation of nine Federal states of Austria, states, of which the capital Vienna is the List of largest cities in Aust ...

Germany Germany, officially the Federal Republic of Germany, is a country in Central Europe. It lies between the Baltic Sea and the North Sea to the north and the Alps to the south. Its sixteen States of Germany, constituent states have a total popu ...

* Karl Daxbacher (born 1953), football manager and player; played 393 games for

FK Austria Wien Fußballklub Austria Wien AG (), known in English as Austria Vienna, and Austria Wien in German language in Europe, German-speaking countries, is an Football in Austria, Austrian professional association football club from the capital city of Vi ...

& 6 for

* Jochen Fallmann (born 1979), a football coach and a former player who played over 450 games. * Markus Wagesreiter (born 1982), an handball player who has played 134 games for

* Lukas Mössner (born 1984), a footballer who played over 370 games * Maria Gstöttner (born 1984), football striker, played 467 games for

SV Neulengbach SV Neulengbach is an Football in Austria, Austrian association football club from Neulengbach. The club was founded in 1923, and in 1996 expanded to include a women's football section. While the men always played in the lower leagues of Austria, ...

and also for Austria women * Benjamin Karl (born 1985), a snowboarder with medals from three Winter Olympics

Literature

* Klaus Nüchtern: ''Kleines Gulasch in St. Pölten'' (German): * Thomas Karl: ''St. Pölten – Ein Wandel durch die Zeit'' (German): * Otto Kapfinger, Michaela Steiner: St. Pölten neu (German):

References

External links

* * {{DEFAULTSORT:Sankt Polten Austrian state capitals Cities and towns in Lower Austria