Austria / Niederösterreich / Naturpark Hohe Wand

About Austria

     Austria (German: Österreich) (Österreich (help·info)), officially the Republic of Austria (German: Republik Österreich) (Republik Österreich (help·info)), is a landlocked country in Central Europe. It borders Germany and the Czech Republic to the north, Slovakia and Hungary to the east, Slovenia and Italy to the south, and Switzerland and Liechtenstein to the west. The capital city is Vienna.

    The German name Österreich can be translated into English as the "eastern realm", which is derived from the Old German Ostarrîchi. The name was Latinized as "Austria", although it has no etymological connection with the name of Australia (which derives from Latin Australis meaning The South). Reich can also mean "empire," and this connotation is the one that is understood in the context of the Austrian/Austro-Hungarian Empire, Holy Roman Empire, although not in the context of the modern Republic of Österreich. The term probably originates in a vernacular translation of the Medieval Latin name for the region: Marchia orientalis, which translates as "eastern marches" or "eastern borderland", as it was situated at the eastern edge of the Holy Roman Empire, that was also mirrored in the name Ostmark, for a short period applied after Anschluss to Germany.

    The current official designation is the Republic of Austria (Republik Österreich). It was originally known after the fall of the Austro-Hungarian Empire from 1918 as the Republic of German Austria (Republik Deutschösterreich), but the state was forced to change its name to "Republic of Austria" in 1919 by the peace Treaty of Saint-Germain. The name was changed again during the Austro-fascist regime (1934–1938), into Federal State of Austria (Bundesstaat Österreich), but restored after regaining independence and the birth of the Second Austrian Republic (1955–present).

About Niederösterreich

     Lower Austria (German: Niederösterreich, Czech: Dolní Rakousy) is one of the nine states or Bundesländer in Austria. The capital of Lower Austria (since 1986) is Sankt Pölten — the most recent capital town in Austria. Prior to 1986, the capital of Lower Austria was Vienna, even though Vienna is not properly part of Lower Austria. With a land area of 19,174 km² and a population of 1.6 million people, it is the largest state in Austria, and in terms of population second only to Vienna (which also is a federal state).

     Located east of Upper Austria, Lower Austria derives its name from where it is situated on the Danube River, which flows from west to east. The state borders on Slovakia, the Czech Republic, and on the other Austrian states of Upper Austria, Styria and Burgenland. The state surrounds Vienna.

     The history of Lower Austria is very similar to the History of Austria. Many castles are located in Lower Austria. Klosterneuburg Abbey, located here, is one of the oldest abbeys in Austria. Also, before World War II, Lower Austria had the largest number of Jews.