Schärding ( , Bavarian name: Scharing) is a town in the northern

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 ...

n state of

Upper Austria Upper Austria ( ; ; ) is one of the nine States of Austria, states of Austria. Its capital is Linz. Upper Austria borders Germany and the Czech Republic, as well as the other Austrian states of Lower Austria, Styria, and Salzburg (state), Salzbur ...

, the capital of the district of the same name, and a major port on the

Inn River The Inn (; ; ) is a river in Switzerland, Austria and Germany. The long river is a right tributary of the Danube, being the third largest tributary of the Danube by discharge. The highest point of its drainage basin is the summit of Piz Berni ...

. Historically, it was owned by the Wittelsbach family, which is reflected in the town's architecture. As of 1 January 2021, it had a population of 5,216.

History and features

The Bavarian Wittelsbach family owned the town until 1779. ''Eyewitness Travel Austria'' guide describes Schärding's best feature as its central square, at the north end of which sits the Silberzeile row of

gable A gable is the generally triangular portion of a wall between the edges of intersecting roof pitches. The shape of the gable and how it is detailed depends on the structural system used, which reflects climate, material availability, and aesth ...

d-roof houses. Other features include the large Church of St. George. The castle is gone but in its gateway there is a local museum with religious sculptures including those by Johann Peter Schwanthaler.

Geography

The town sits at an altitude of 313 meters and is located in the

Innviertel The Innviertel (literally German language, German for "Inn Quarter"; officially called the ; ) is a traditional Austrian region southeast of the Inn (river), Inn river. It forms the western part of the States of Austria, state of Upper Austria a ...

. It measures 4.1 kilometers from north to south, 1.9 km from west to east. The total area is 4.08 km². 2.4 percent of the area is forested, 31.7 percent is used for

agriculture Agriculture encompasses crop and livestock production, aquaculture, and forestry for food and non-food products. Agriculture was a key factor in the rise of sedentary human civilization, whereby farming of domesticated species created ...

. The

forms the border with the neighboring German state of

Bavaria Bavaria, officially the Free State of Bavaria, is a States of Germany, state in the southeast of Germany. With an area of , it is the list of German states by area, largest German state by land area, comprising approximately 1/5 of the total l ...

. Directly opposite the town on the Bavarian side of the river is Neuhaus am Inn, which is accessible via two bridges.

History

The area around the current town has been inhabited since the

Neolithic period The Neolithic or New Stone Age (from Greek 'new' and 'stone') is an archaeological period, the final division of the Stone Age in Mesopotamia, Asia, Europe and Africa (c. 10,000 BCE to c. 2,000 BCE). It saw the Neolithic Revolution, a wid ...

. In 15 B.C., the Romans were advancing to the Danube and the

, including Schärding, was a part of the Roman province of Noricum and was populated by Celts. Around 488, King Odoacer withdrew his troops to the south. West Germanic Bavarians migrated about 30 years later up the Danube and occupied the area between the

Vienna Woods The Vienna Woods (, ) are forested highlands that form the northeastern foothills of the Northern Limestone Alps in the states of Lower Austria and Vienna. The and range of hills is heavily wooded and a popular recreation area with the Viennese ...

and Lech. Place names ending in ''-ing, -ham'' and ''-heim'' clearly indicate the change of hands. The name of the district capital ''Scardinga'' came from the name given to the settlement by a man named Skardo and his family. Schärding (Scardinga) was first mentioned in records in 806 as a Passau farmyard. It has been the town center of the county of the Counts of Formbach-Neuburg since the 10th century. The castle rock in the immediate vicinity of the Inn River was utilized early as a favorable geographical location. From 1160 Schärding was ruled by the Counts of Andechs, and from 1248 by the

Wittelsbach dynasty The House of Wittelsbach () is a former Bavarian dynasty, with branches that have ruled over territories including the Electorate of Bavaria, the Electoral Palatinate, the Electorate of Cologne, County of Holland, Holland, County of Zeeland, ...

. Benefiting from its location by the Inn, Schärding became a center of trade, particularly for salt,

timber Lumber is wood that has been processed into uniform and useful sizes (dimensional lumber), including beams and planks or boards. Lumber is mainly used for construction framing, as well as finishing (floors, wall panels, window frames). ...

, ores, wine,

silk Silk is a natural fiber, natural protein fiber, some forms of which can be weaving, woven into textiles. The protein fiber of silk is composed mainly of fibroin and is most commonly produced by certain insect larvae to form cocoon (silk), c ...

, glass, grain, textiles and

livestock Livestock are the Domestication, domesticated animals that are raised in an Agriculture, agricultural setting to provide labour and produce diversified products for consumption such as meat, Egg as food, eggs, milk, fur, leather, and wool. The t ...

. The town was granted market rights at the end of the 13th century. After many changes of ownership in the 14th century, for example on 20 January 1316 (to the Wittelsbachs), on September 24, 1364 it went to Rudolf IV of the

House of Habsburg The House of Habsburg (; ), also known as the House of Austria, was one of the most powerful Dynasty, dynasties in the history of Europe and Western civilization. They were best known for their inbreeding and for ruling vast realms throughout ...

. 1369 ended the peace of Schärding (the dispute between Austria and Bavaria for control of the Tyrol, which fell to the Habsburgs who pawned the town back to Bavaria.) From 1429 to 1436 the fortifications of the city were built by Duke Ludwig the Gebarteten. Among others, the outer castle gate, the moat, Linz and Passau Gate and the Water Gate were built during this time. During the

Thirty Years' War The Thirty Years' War, fought primarily in Central Europe between 1618 and 1648, was one of the most destructive conflicts in History of Europe, European history. An estimated 4.5 to 8 million soldiers and civilians died from battle, famine ...

, especially in the years 1628, 1634, 1645, 1647 and 1651, the plague raged in the city. During the

War of the Austrian Succession The War of the Austrian Succession was a European conflict fought between 1740 and 1748, primarily in Central Europe, the Austrian Netherlands, Italian Peninsula, Italy, the Atlantic Ocean and Mediterranean Sea. Related conflicts include King Ge ...

, a Bavarian army was defeated near the town on 17 January, 1742, during a winter offensive led by the Austrian field marshal von Khevenhüller. In April 1939, when Mayor Hans Ominger, ''Kreisamtsleiter'' Johann Pachman and other National Socialists hosted a hunters' meeting at the Aschenbrenner Inn, a portrait of

Hermann Göring Hermann Wilhelm Göring (or Goering; ; 12 January 1893 – 15 October 1946) was a German Nazism, Nazi politician, aviator, military leader, and convicted war criminal. He was one of the most powerful figures in the Nazi Party, which gov ...

was decorated with fresh greens. The men celebrated the incorporation of the neighboring German-inhabited

Sudetenland The Sudetenland ( , ; Czech and ) is a German name for the northern, southern, and western areas of former Czechoslovakia which were inhabited primarily by Sudeten Germans. These German speakers had predominated in the border districts of Bohe ...

of Czechoslovakia into German hunting grounds. Anna Rosmus ''Hitlers Nibelungen'', Samples Grafenau 2015, pp. 205f

Population

Municipal structure

The municipality comprises the following five localities (in parentheses population status as of October 31, 2011). * Allerheiligen (870) * Brunnwies (199) * Kreuzberg (236) * Schärding Innere Stadt (567) * Schärding Vorstadt (3004)

Population

Religion

The residents are predominantly

Roman Catholic The Catholic Church (), also known as the Roman Catholic Church, is the largest Christian church, with 1.27 to 1.41 billion baptized Catholics worldwide as of 2025. It is among the world's oldest and largest international institut ...

, at 83.5 percent of the entire town population. The second largest religious community is

Islam Islam is an Abrahamic religions, Abrahamic monotheistic religion based on the Quran, and the teachings of Muhammad. Adherents of Islam are called Muslims, who are estimated to number Islam by country, 2 billion worldwide and are the world ...

with 5.0 percent of the population.

Lutheran Lutheranism is a major branch of Protestantism that emerged under the work of Martin Luther, the 16th-century German friar and Protestant Reformers, reformer whose efforts to reform the theology and practices of the Catholic Church launched ...

s make up 2.8 percent, whereas; 5.6 percent have no religious affiliation.

In popular culture

The

asteroid An asteroid is a minor planet—an object larger than a meteoroid that is neither a planet nor an identified comet—that orbits within the Solar System#Inner Solar System, inner Solar System or is co-orbital with Jupiter (Trojan asteroids). As ...

178243 Schaerding was named in the town's honour by its discoverer, Richard Gierlinger, who calls Schärding his hometown.

Notable people

* Ingrid Nargang (1929–2019), judge and contemporary historian * Marlene Morreis (1976–), actress * Oliver Glasner (1974-), football manager

Gallery

File:Pfarrkirche St. Georg, Schärding.jpg,

Saint George Saint George (;Geʽez: ጊዮርጊስ, , ka, გიორგი, , , died 23 April 303), also George of Lydda, was an early Christian martyr who is venerated as a saint in Christianity. According to holy tradition, he was a soldier in the ...

's church File:Schaerding Innpromenade.jpg, Schärding at the Inn River

References

External links

Official website
{{DEFAULTSORT:Scharding Cities and towns in Schärding District Populated places on the Inn (river)