Description of the attraction
Voecklabruck is an Austrian city located in the southwestern part of the federal state of Upper Austria, part of the Vöcklabruck district. It is located in the foothills at an altitude of 433 meters above sea level, on the river of the same name. The city is an important administrative and economic center, a university city. Due to its proximity to the Salzkammergut lakes (Attersee, Mondsee, Traunsee), Vöcklabruck is very tourist-oriented.
Voecklabruck was first mentioned in 1134. The status of the city was granted in 1358, the year of the death of Duke Albrecht II. It is known that the Duke and his son Rudolph IV were the great patrons of the city. Emperor Maximilian I, as well as the lords from the castle of Warneburg, repeatedly stayed in Vöcklabruck.
In the 16th and 17th centuries, the city found itself at the center of religious wars, which repeatedly led to peasant uprisings. In 1570, most of the inhabitants were still Protestants, which led to constant conflicts with the new Catholic abbot.
After the Thirty Years War, the city found itself in poverty and ruin and was excluded from the association of sovereign cities. It was only in 1718 that Emperor Charles VI was able to return the city status to Voecklabruck again.
During World War II, from 1941 to May 1942, there was a concentration camp not far from the city. The labor of three hundred prisoners was used in the construction of roads and bridges in Vöcklabruck. The city was not damaged during the war, but after its end, internally displaced persons settled in Vöcklabruck.
Two medieval towers on the main square of the city deserve the attention of visitors to the city, where frescoes dating from 1502 and painted by the Tyrolean Jörg Calderer were discovered in 1960. In the center of the city there is the late Gothic church of St. Ulrich, the baroque church of St. Egidius, and in the south of the city there is an unusual old church of the Assumption of the Virgin Mary. The Museum of Local Lore has an exposition dedicated to the composer Anton Brukner.
