Fast Facts of Upper Austria

Land Area: 11,980 sq.km
Capital City: Linz
Population: 1.376.797 (2001)
Governor: Josef Pühringer
No. of Districts : 15

Attraction of Lower Austria

The beautiful vineyards and forests of the Danube Valley…

Blessed with the beautiful scenery of the River Danube Valley with its wines, castles and religious buildings, Lower Austria is a wonderful province to visit. It also boasts the Wienerwald - a lovely forested area with great walks and spas - and the Semmering, a popular holiday destination in the south. Austria’s glorious capital, Vienna, makes a great start-off point from which to explore the surrounding province of Lower Austria.

There is no better way to see the province in all its glory than from the perspective of the Danube valley, so take one of the many boat tours on offer to enjoy the scenic Wachau section, from Melk and Krems. This section is flanked by gorgeous vineyards, wine-producing villages, forested slopes and hundreds of magnificent, lofty fortresses. These fortresses were built due to the river and valley’s historical importance as a corridor between east and west. Even the monasteries and abbeys have fortified defences to replicate those of the fortresses. Rent a bicycle and take a leisurely ride on some of the excellent riverside bicycle tracks from Vienna to Krems on the south bank and from Krems to Linz on both north and south banks.

Industry in Lower Austria

Economic Chamber of Lower Austria, Industrial Section

The Industrial Section of the Lower Austrian Economic Chamber is the legal representative of the interests of 1.600 industrial companies. It fulfills all the needs of its members in the relevant fields. At the level of industrial policies it provides for a consensus with the interests of the trade enterprises, it also assumes the representation vis a vis social security authorities and employee organizations.

The Industrial Section is also one of the most important purveyors of information for Lower Austria’s industry, as such it provides an appropriate platform in the consulting and service sector and as a strong partner to enterprises with questions concerning Europe.

Consulting and Service Sector

The Industrial Section offers several counseling and service possibilities to its members free of charge. The goal of all these efforts and activities is to create a competitive advantage for Lower Austrian industrial companies. It does so by way of:

Fast Facts of St. Lower Austria

Land Area: 19,174 sq.km
Capital City: St. Polten
Population: 1,545,804 (2001)
Governor: Erwin Pröll

The Lower Austrian Wine-Growing Areas

Wachau
Austria’s most famous winegrowing area is known for its exceptionally refined and elegant white wines. The expertise of the area’s winemakers is matched by ideal natural conditions: cool winds from the highlands of the Waldviertel, the temperature-regulating effect of the Danube, and Pannonian streams from the South combine to produce wines of great spice, elegance, force and fullness.

Visitors to the Wachau can expect not only world-class wines, but one of the most enchanting landscapes on the continent. The Wachau’s vineyard terraces are centuries old and laid out in a spectacular manner, moving Wine Spectator magazine to say, “It would be hard to imagine a more beautiful wine district… only the Middle Mosel in Germany and the Douro Valley in Portugal can offer vineyard landscapes as spectacular as the soaring, terraced slopes of the Wachau.�

The Wachau was added to UNESCO’s World Heritage List in 2000.

Area Wines: Wachau Rieslings are world-famous and the main source of the area’s reputation. However, don’t miss the local Grüner Veltliner, Chardonnay (Feinburgunder), and Gelber Muskateller.

St. Lower Austria

Lower Austria, Ger. Niederösterreich, province (1991 pop. 1,480,927), c.7,400 sq mi (19,170 sq km), NE Austria. Vienna, although outside its boundaries, is the seat of the provincial government. Lower Austria is the largest of the Austrian provinces, and it borders on the Czech Republic in the north and Slovakia in the east. It is a picturesque, hilly region, drained by the Danube River and containing peaks of the Eastern Alps and the Wienerwald (Vienna Woods). The province includes roughly half of the country’s arable land and is noted for its grain production and its wines.

The valleys and basins around Vienna and Wiener Neustadt contain more than half of all Austrian industry, including manufactures in metal, textiles, chemicals, paper, and cellulose. The region also supports industries in food processing, sugar refining, brewing, and sawmilling. Petroleum is produced N of the Danube, especially near Zistersdorf. Baden is a well-known spa, and the Semmering region in the south is a tourist and health center. The province has several medieval castles and abbeys. In c.1450 a permanent split was made between Upper and Lower Austria. The region became a Bundesland in 1918; it lost Vienna in 1920. Lower Austria was forced to yield land to Vienna in 1938 but recovered much of it during district reorganization in 1954. The history of Lower Austria coincides with that of Austria.