Sachsenburg

View from the east

Coat of arms

Sachsenburg

Location within Austria

Coordinates: 46°49′N 13°21′E / 46.817°N 13.350°ECoordinates: 46°49′N 13°21′E / 46.817°N 13.350°E

Country

Government

• Mayor

Wilfried Pichler

Area

• Total

42.57 km² (16.44 sq mi)

Elevation

557 m (1,827 ft)

Population (1 January 2016)

• Total

1,299

• Density

31/km² (79/sq mi)

Time zone

CET (UTC+1)

• Summer (DST)

CEST (UTC+2)

Postal code

9751

Area code

04769

Website

www.sachsenburg.at

Sachsenburg is a market town in the district of Spittal an der Drau in Carinthia, Austria.

The municipal area stretches along the valley of the Drava river, where it enters the Lurnfeld plain between the Kreuzeck group of the Hohe Tauern mountain range in the north and Gailtal Alps in the south. The municipality comprises the cadastral communities of Sachsenburg and Obergottesfeld.

The origin of the name is uncertain: an affiliation with the far apart mediæval Duchy of Saxony has never been established; however the coat of arms probably awarded in the 16th century shows a Saxe, a kind of pan formerly used for gold prospecting within the nearby Hohe Tauern range. The strategically important narrow place of the Drava valley (Sachsenburger Klause) probably was guarded already in Roman times, when the area was part of the Noricum province.

Two fortresses blocking the passage along the river were first mentioned in a 1213 deed. Sachsenburg is documented as an administrative seat of the Archbishops of Salzburg in 1292, who held large possessions within the Duchy of Carinthia. As a Salzburg stronghold, it was a thorn in the flesh of both the Carinthian dukes and the Counts of Gorizia at Lienz, therefore often under attack by their forces. In 1252, Count Meinhard III of Gorizia allied with his father-in-law Count Albert IV of Tyrol laid siege to the fortress, though to no avail. The Salzburg archbishops granted the settlement market rights in 1326 and had further ramparts and town walls erected.

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Wikipedia