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| In 2002 the provinces of Vienna and
Lower Austria
celebrated the Wienerwald Millennium
in honour of the first mention of the
forest in a document dating back 1000 years. In 1002 the German Emperor Heinrich II. gave the
Austrian Heinrich I. large chunks of what is today’s Wienerwald
to secure the loyalty of the margrave. In reality the Wienerwald
has been
settled for far longer. Finds such as pierced axes in the Rosental
valley and
on the slopes of the Bierhäuselberg point to human activity from as far back as
the stone age. From 300 BC the
Celts and the Illyrians came into the area,
later on followed by the Romans. Since dense forests used to be
considered creepy
and inimical, the first villages
were probably not attempted before the 8th
century, at a time when the Slaves and the Avares came into the
area. Religious
orders like the Cistercians and the Carthusians paved the way for
further
settling activity. During the time of the two Turkish sieges of Vienna (in 1529
and 1683) the surrounding area was also affected and many
villages had to be
abandoned. In the 18th century
important roads such as the
large imperial road
and the Western Railroad were driven through the forest. This
development
facilitated the “conquest“ of the Wienerwald by the inhabitants of the
capital
Vienna in the course of the 19th
century. Aspiring to the ideal of a rural
idyll, noble families erected
landscaped gardens with temples. Artists too, for
example Mozart, Beethoven, Schubert and Stifter were inspired by the
Wienerwald. In 1870 plans were made to cut down parts of the forest.
The clever
publicity war waged by Josef Schöffel (1832-1910) managed to
prevent the
implementation of these plans. Today the Wienerwald is considered an
attractive
residential area and an important recreational space for the population
of Vienna. |
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