Name of Burgenland

The region wasn’t an independent territorial entity so it didn’t have any name before 1921. Until the end of the First World War the German-speaking western borderland of Hungary was sometimes called Deutsch-Westungarn (German West Hungary).

The name Vierburgenland (Land of Four Castles) was created in 1919 by Odo Rötig, a Viennese resident in Sopron/Odenburg. It was derived from the name of the four Hungarian varmegye (in German Komitate, ‘counties’) known in Hungarian as Pozsony, Moson, Sopron and Vas, or in German as Pressburg, Wieselburg, Ödenburg and Eisenburg.

After the town of Pozsony/Pressburg was assigned to Czechoslovakia the number vier was dropped, but the name was kept because it was deemed to be appropriate for a region with so many old frontier castles. The Burgenland name was officially adopted by the first provincial Landtag in 1922.

In Hungarian the German name is generally accepted but there are three modern alternatives used by minor groups. The Hungarian translation of the German name, Varvidek was invented by Laszlo Juhasz, an expert of the region in the 1970s and it is becoming increasingly popular especially in touristic publications. The other two names Orvidek and Felso-Orvidek derive from the name of the most important old Magyar language island, the Felso-Orseg. This microregion is around the town Felsoor/Oberwart so these new names are a bit misleading however they are sometimes used. The Croatian and Slovenian names Gradisce and Gradiscansko are translations of the German name.