Description of the attraction
Enns is an Austrian city located on the banks of the Enns River, 17 km from Linz, in the federal state of Upper Austria. The city is located at an altitude of 281 meters above sea level. Ens is the oldest city in Austria, it received city privileges on April 22, 1212. A document confirming this fact is kept in the local museum.
The first settlements in the area of the Enns estuary date back to the 4th century BC. It is known that in this area there was a settlement of the Celts, who created the state of Norik. Noricum was part of the Roman Empire until 15 BC. In the second and third centuries, the Roman camp of Laureacum, with 6,000 soldiers, was located on the site of present-day Ens. In 212, the emperor Caracalla granted the settlement the status of a municipality. In 370, a basilica was built in Ense on the foundations of the Temple of Jupiter, and in 1344 the Church of St. Lawrence was built on the site of the former basilica.
The city suffered greatly from the plague of 1625, which claimed the lives of every 14th inhabitant of the city. In 1626, farmers besieged the city for a month, two-thirds of the houses then were badly damaged.
On December 15, 1858, in honor of the passage of Empress Elisabeth from Vienna to Linz, a railway station was opened in Ens. During the Second World War, Enns was in the American occupation zone.
Enns is currently a modern city with good infrastructure. The main city attractions include the city tower, built in 1568, the Cathedral of St. Lawrence and the museum of the Roman camp Lauriacum. Although the castle of Enzegg was founded in the 10th century, it underwent a major reconstruction in 1565. The Church of the Virgin Mary, once part of the Franciscan monastery in Ense, was built in 1270 in the Gothic style. Ens is part of the association of small historic cities in Austria.
