Weitra

Geschichte

Weitra is a small town in the district of Gmünd in the Austrian state of Lower Austria.GeographyThe municipality is situated amidst the extended forests of the rural Waldviertel region, close to the border with the Czech Republic. It is located on the upper Lainsitz (Lužnice) river, a tributary of the Vltava (Moldau) north of the European watershed. The town's economy mainly relies on agriculture and forestry, but also on summer tourism.Weitra consists of the cadastral communities of Brühl, Großwolfgers, Oberwindhag, Reinprechts, Spital, St. Wolfgang, Sulz, Walterschlag, Weitra proper, and Wetzles.HistoryA first castle at Weitra was built from about 1201 onwards at the behest of the Austrian noble Hadmar II of Kuenring, also owner of Dürnstein Castle where King Richard the Lionheart was imprisoned in the winter of 1192/93. The Kuenring (or Kühnring) family of ministeriales had acquired the originally Bohemian estates in 1185; they fell from grace after the extinction of the Austrian ducal House of Babenberg in 1246, as they had sided with King Ottokar II of Bohemia against the rising Habsburg dynasty. Ottokar was defeated by the Habsburg king Rudolf I of Germany at the 1278 Battle on the Marchfeld, and Rudolph's son, Duke Albert I of Austria, finally seized Weitra in 1296. A city wall was first mentioned in the late 13th century.