Duchy of Austria

Austria, 1156–1453. Draft, not yet reviewed

The Duchy of Austria was a medieval principality of the Holy Roman Empire, established in 1156 by the Privilegium Minus. Austria was a feudal possession of the House of Babenberg until 1246. The German king Rudolf I took over the dominion as the first monarch of the Habsburg dynasty in 1276. In 1453, the Habsburg emperor Frederick III officially acknowledged the archducal title of the Austrian rulers.

Seat of power: Vienna

No rulers documented for this era yet.

Culture

• The current Romanesque and Gothic form of the cathedral was largely initiated by Duke Rudolf IV (1339–1365).
• With its multi-coloured tile roof, the cathedral has become one of the city's most recognizable symbols.
• The cathedral stands on the ruins of two earlier churches, the first a parish church consecrated in 1147.
• The new Austrian duke took his residence at Vienna at the site of the later Hofburg Palace. He also founded Schottenstift Abbey as the Babenberg proprietary church, settled with Irish monks.

Picture

The cathedral is a Roman Catholic church in Vienna, Austria, and the mother church of the Archdiocese of Vienna.

Image: C.Stadler/Bwag, CC BY-SA 4.0, file

Sources

• Duchy of Austria (Wikipedia)
• Duchy of Austria (Wikidata)
• About the picture (Wikipedia)

Text adapted from the Wikipedia articles listed as sources, CC BY-SA 4.0.