History Of St. Johann in Tirol

History Of St. Johann in Tirol - Austria Travel Guide - By Travel S Helper

There are not any prehistoric or protohistoric archeological remains in the St. Johann area. On the southern side of Leukental, between Kitzbühel and Jochberg, there is evidence of Bronze Age mining though. This mining activity originated in the Urnfield epoch, which ran about between 1300 and 1100 BC. The Celtic Ambisontes and Alums tribes engaged in copper mining beginning in the 4th century BC Crucially, a mule road from the Bronze Age over the Leukental linked the north and south of the Alps. Still, the St. Johann river basin does not show any remnants of communities.

Originating in ancient Celtic, the hamlet of Sperten was absorbed into the Celtic Noricum kingdom in the second century BC, therefore attesting to its historical link to this legacy. Roman conquest of the Eastern Alps in 15 BC included them within the Noricum province. Germanic migration and the founding of Bavarian towns in the sixth and seventh centuries brought the country under the Duchy of Bavaria following the fall of the Western Roman Empire in 476.

Remnants of the Bavarian farmers who cleared forests and worked the ground include the field names Frickling, Schwentling, Obing, and Reitham in the St. Johann valley basin. Tracing their ancestry to the tribal leader Liucho, the Liuchinger noble family had a major impact on the evolution of the Leukental county over many centuries. The “Burgwies” farm in the Bärnstetten region marks their court at Leukenstein Castle, most likely wrecked by a landslide in the 13th century.

Under the Counts of Falkenstein from 1166 until their death in 1272, the Leukental changed from being a Bavarian lordship to being directly controlled. The court settled at Kitzbühel in 1297. First noted in historical records in 1150, St. Johann was named for a church erected by missionaries in the 8th century to commemorate John the Baptist. Officially, it was identified as a parish or hamlet in the founding Chiemsee diocesan deed in 1216. Existing before the recorded occurrence, Apfeldorf (around 1102–1104) was mentioned in a document from the Scheyern Monastery as “Affoltrach in montanis videlicet in Liuchental.”

The names of the farms Oberbürg and Stallbürg reveal that the Lords of Velben, a well-known noble family from Oberpinzgau during the 12th and 13th centuries, had a fortress near Rettenbach. There are topographical traces of the castle in the Rettenbach section of “Forchtenstein”. Unterbürg’s court name reminds one of the adjacent Sperten castle, owned by Count Palatine of Ortenburg.

Originally a part of Upper Bavaria from 1255 to 1340, the territory changed in its political ties over the 13th and 14th centuries. Countess Margarete of Tyrol-Görz married Bavarian Duke Ludwig the Brandenburg, therefore briefly uniting the County of Tyrol with Bavaria from 1342 to 1369. Following the 1392 split of Bavaria, Bavaria-Ingolstadt developed and finally turned into Bavaria-Landshut in 1447. Emperor Maximilian I combined Kitzbühel power with Tyrol in 1505.

In 1446 St. Johann became under the authority of Chiemsee’s bishops. Up to 1808, it served as their vacation or pastoral residence. Economic prosperity sprang on the basis of copper and silver mining at Rerobichl near Oberndorf, then a part of St. Johann. Built in the 17th century, the approximately 880-meter Holy Spirit Shaft was the deepest shaft in the world at that time. Mining continued until the eighteen century.

St. Johann’s designation as the deanery seat came in 1621 Many baroque monuments were erected in the 17th and 18th centuries, which earned the moniker “Baroque St. Johann.” The Josephine parish rule moved the territory jurisdiction of the Fieberbrunner Ache area (Winkl Sonnseite, Reitham, Mitterndorf, Oberhofen, Niederhofen, Stoppenau) from Kirchdorf to St. Johann parish in 1786.

Active combatants in the Napoleonic Wars from 1796 to 1805, the St. Johann riflemen were under the direction of commanders Andreas Augustinus Feller and Josef Hager. Following the signing of the Peace of Pressburg in 1805, Tyrol was annexed into Bavaria and the Tyrolean Riflemen started to rebel in 1809. Joseph Speckbacher opened his Unterland defense headquarters at the Gasthof zum Bären in that year. Leading Captain Anton Georg Feller at Kufstein, the St. Johann riflemen shown amazing bravery in their battle at the Strub pass. Dean Matthias Wieshofer stood up for the town against French and Bavarian armies in May 1809.

Completing the Gisela Railway in 1875 created a link between St. Johann and the global network, therefore promoting economic growth and travel. “St. Johann im Leukental” gave way during the late 19th century to “St. Johann in Tyrol”.

St. Johann suffered 138 losses, which are commemorated and honored by the war memorial built on the main square in 1923 even though he was not personally engaged in the fighting of World War I. In 1927 Oberndorf gained municipal independence.

For St. Johann in Tirol, World War II and the National Socialist administration caused major destruction and misery. Six of the 233 soldiers killed overall on the battlefields were victims of euthanasia. St. Johann was home to a Dachau concentration camp branch open from August 1940 until June 1941. Twenty political prisoners were sent during this period to convert a mountain property into a rest home for SS staff. Though the town was spared from war devastation, the train station was bombed in December 1944 and the bombs fell short of their intended target. Significant artworks in a cellar close to St. Johann were stored at the Vienna Art History Museum in May 1945.

The municipality of St. Johann received a coat of arms in 1954 with the colors of the Leukental court split over a green and red half. The bishop’s crosier shows the bishops of Chiemsee; the ibex horn stands in for the Lords of Velben. After receiving market town status in 1956, St. Johann had notable 1950s economic growth in the areas of tourism, industry, trade, and commerce. Beginning in the 1980s, the town had a traffic boom that led to the 1990s’ creation of a pedestrian zone and road upgrades needed. These steps helped the town core to be revived.

Establishing the district hospital in St. Johann confirmed its status as the main healthcare center in the area and marked notable development of medical facilities between 1991 and 2011. Comprising around 3,000 pupils, St. Johann in Tirol is a well-known educational center. Federal high schools, state agriculture colleges, nursing schools, and tourism facilities call it home.

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