History of the municipality of Spital am Pyhrn

Scrapers made of horn and stone and skeletons of cave bears proove that the highlands of the Tote Gebirge mountain range above the Teichl and Steyr valleys were hunted and roamed by the Neandertal man. The Celts and Romans and later the Bishops of Bamberg and Tradesmen of Nürnberg moved along the Pyhrn pass, the only 945m high passage over Kalkalpen mountain range.
Emporer Heinrich II. gave the Land at the Pyhrn to the diocese of Bamberg. In 1190 Bishop Otto I. of Bamberg handed Spital am Pyhrn over to a an amateur brotherhood. Spital am Pyhrn was part of the duchy of Austria since the 12th century. The hospital was converted into a collegial church in 1418. During the following centuries the church became very rich. In 1605 the collegial church Spital am Pyhrn was elevated to a provosthood by Pope Paul V. From 1714 to 1730 the church was redecorated by Johann Michael Prunner in baroque style, including fresces by Bartolomeo Altomonte and stucco work by Domenico Antonio Carlone. During the Napoleon Wars, the village was occupied several times.

In 1806 the Benedictine monchs of the abolished monastery St. Blasien in the Black Forest first moved with their entire inventory to Spital am Pyhrn, which was also abolished in 1807. The entire monastery therefore moved to St. Paul in Lavanttal (Carinthia) in 1809. The collegial church of Spital am Pyhrn turned into a parish church. During a fire in the night of the 25th of October 1841, both the village and church of Spital am Pyhrn were damaged.
Since 1918 the village of Spital am Pyhrn belongs to the province of Upper Austria. After the annexation of Austria to the German Reich on 13th March 1938, the village belonged to the district of Upper Danube. In the beginning of 1945 the entire gold treasure of the Hungarian national bank (33.000 kg) was hidden in the catacombs under the presbytery of the collegial church. After 1945 the province of Upper Austria was re-established.
The monastery was restored on the outside in the years 1964 to 1967. From 1989 to 1997 forestry office was situated in the church of Spital am Pyhrn and since 2008 the monastery building belongs to the municipality of Spital am Pyhrn. Today the Austrian Rock Art Museum is situated in the restored baroque rooms of the collegial church, where you can also visit the exhibition of the Gingerbread Village Spital am Pyhrn.



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