Bregenz


Bregenz is the capital of Vorarlberg, the westernmost state of Austria. The city is on the eastern shores of Lake Constance, the third-largest freshwater lake in Central Europe, between Switzerland in the west and Germany in the northwest.
The city is on a plateau falling in a series of terraces to the lake at the foot of Pfänder mountain. It is a junction of the arterial roads from the Rhine valley to the German Alpine foothills, with cruise ship services on Lake Constance.
It is famous for the annual summer music festival Bregenzer Festspiele as well as the dance festival Bregenzer Spring.

History

The first settlements date from 1500 BC. Celtic tribe named Brigantii is mentioned by Strabo as a sub-tribe in these region of the Alps. In the 5th century BC, the Celts settled at Brigantion, which was one of their most heavily fortified locations. After battles in 15 BC, the Romans conquered Brigantion and the city became a Roman camp. It was conferred the status of a municipality around 50 AD and was the seat of the Roman admiralty for Lake Constance. In 259/60 Brigantium was destroyed by the Alemanni, a Germanic people who settled in the area in around 450.
From 610 to 612 St. Columbanus and Saint Gall worked as missionaries in Bregenz. From 917 the castle served as a residence of the Udalrichinger, who called themselves Counts of Bregenz. The house died out around 1150. The son of the first Ulrich was Saint Gebhard, born in 947. He became Bishop of Konstanz. In around 1170 Hugo of Tübingen founded a town settlement, enlarged in the 13th and 14th century and from 1650 to 1652.
The city was sold in 1451 and in 1523 to the Habsburgs and continued under Austrian rule, with a brief occupation by Swedish forces under Carl Gustaf Wrangel during the 30 Years' War, until the 19th century. Bregenz was under Bavarian rule from 1805 to 1814. From 1842 to 1850, the harbour on Lake Constance was built. In 1883 and from 1889–1891 the harbour was enlarged, and Austrian ship service was set up in 1884. Rail communication has existed since 1872 and since 1884 across the Arlberg massif. Since then, the town has extended to the surrounding countryside.
Since 1726, Bregenz has been the main seat of Austrian administration in Vorarlberg. Rieden-Vorkloster and Fluh were incorporated into Bregenz in 1919 and in 1946, respectively. The town was bombarded in 1945, and 72 houses were destroyed.

Population


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Main sights

Upper town

Sights in the district of Vorkloster include the Maria Hilf parish church and the Cistercian monastery of Mehrerau.
On the Gebhardsberg rock are remains of the fortress of Hohenbregenz.

Businesses and services

Government

Bregenz is the seat of the Vorarlberg state assembly, and of most of the provincial authorities/institutions of Vorarlberg, Office for Environmental Protection, Chamber of Labour, Economics Chamber, Chamber of Agriculture, Chamber of Pharmacists, military regional headquarters, military garrison, one of the main hospitals of the province as well as a sanatorium, farmers' health and social insurance office, VLV.

Consulates

A consulate-general of Turkey, and honorary consulates of Belarus, France, Germany, Hungary, Norway, and Switzerland are located in Bregenz. Honorary consulates of Finland and the United Kingdom are located in nearby Lauterach, and an honorary consulate of Brazil in nearby Hard.

Schools and the arts

Bregenz is home to four Gymnasium secondary schools, a commercial college, a technical college, upper secondary business schools, three Berufsschulen, crafts colleges, the Academy of Social Sciences, nursing school. Others include: an adult education centre, a school boarding houses, state archives, a state library, a state museum, Kunsthaus Bregenz, Künstlerhaus, Thurn und Taxis Palace, five monasteries, Heimatwerk, various newspapers.

Public facilities

Festival and Congress centre, Theater am Kornmarkt, casino, harbour for sailing boats and yachts, cable car up the Pfänder mountain.

Economy

There were 14,769 employed people at Bregenz in 1991. The economy is mainly dominated by small businesses in the service, trade and industry sectors: these include textile industry, iron-fittings manufacturer Julius Blum GmbH, glass processing and machine construction.
The airline InterSky, which was the biggest privately owned airline in Austria, had its headquarters in Bregenz. Bi-seasonal tourism; a major attraction is the Bregenz Festival, winter sports at the Pfänder mountain.

Culture

Bregenzer Festspiele

The annual summer music festival Bregenzer Festspiele is a world-famous festival which takes place in July and August each year on and around a stage on Lake Constance. This festival attracts more than 150,000 people every year to Bregenz with a budget of around EUR 20 million. The program changes every two years. In 2016 the main opera performed was Turandot by Giacomo Puccini. In 2017 and 2018 the main opera was Carmen by Georges Bizet. In 2019/20 the opera will be Rigoletto by Giuseppe Verdi
In addition to playing on the lake stage, orchestral concerts and operas are also played in the adjacent festival theater. In 2018 local opera houses are staging productions of Beatrice Cenci by Berthold Goldschmidt and The Barber of Seville by Gioacchino Rossini. There is also a children's and youth program during and before the beginning of the festival.
The lake stage is the largest open-air theater in the world, with an audience capacity of around 7,000.

Bregenz Jazz Festival

Since 2014, the Bregenz Jazz Festival has been held every year in June at the Kornmarktplatz. It is the successor of the New Orleans Festival, which took place from 1999 to 2013 several days in the early summer in the inner city of Bregenz, and which was no longer supported by the initiator Markus Linder. In addition to the change of name, there was also a musical genre change from blues to jazz. The location and the timing stayed roughly the same.

Bregenzer Spring (Bregenzer Frühling)

Since 1987, the Bregenzer Spring, a dance festival, has been held every year between March and May in the Festival Hall of Bregenz. Dance ensembles from all over the world perform their new productions as well as Austrian premieres. With a budget of around EUR 500,000 and up to 10,000 visitors, the Bregenzer Spring is one of the most important dance festivals in Austria.

Climate

Sport

Bregenz is twinned with: