Dunkelsteinerwald is a market municipality with 2,289 inhabitants in the district Melk

Melk (district)

Bezirk Melk is a district of the state of Lower Austria in Austria.-Municipalities:Suburbs, hamlets and other subdivisions of a municipality are indicated in small characters.*Artstetten-Pöbring...

 in Lower Austria

Lower Austria

Lower Austria is the northeasternmost state of the nine states in Austria. The capital of Lower Austria since 1986 is Sankt Pölten, the most recently designated capital town in Austria. The capital of Lower Austria had formerly been Vienna, even though Vienna is not officially part of Lower Austria...

, Austria

Austria

Austria , officially the Republic of Austria , is a landlocked country of roughly 8.4 million people in Central Europe. It is bordered by the Czech Republic and Germany to the north, Slovakia and Hungary to the east, Slovenia and Italy to the south, and Switzerland and Liechtenstein to the...

.

Geography

Dunkelsteinerwald lies in the Mostviertel

Mostviertel

Mostviertel is the southwestern quarter of the four quarters of Lower Austria . It is bordered on the north by the Danube and to the south and west by the state borders of Styria and Upper Austria respectively...

 in Lower Austria. The surface of the market municipality covers 54.19 square kilometers. 46.73 percent of the area is wooded.

The municipality includes the catastral districts of Eckartsberg

Eckartsberg

Eckartsberg is a settlement in the municipality of Dunkelsteinerwald in Melk District, Lower Austria in northeastern Austria.-References:...

, Gansbach

Gansbach

Gansbach is a small town and centre of the municipality of Dunkelsteinerwald in Melk District, Lower Austria in northeastern Austria. It lies several kilometres inland from the Danube.To the west and north of the settlement is the Wachau valley. The parish church probably originates from the 14th...

, Gerolding

Gerolding

Gerolding is a settlement in the municipality of Dunkelsteinerwald in Melk District, Lower Austria in northeastern Austria.-References:...

, Geroldinger Wald

Geroldinger Wald

Geroldinger Wald is a settlement in the municipality of Dunkelsteinerwald in Melk District, Lower Austria in northeastern Austria....

, Häusling

Häusling

Häusling is a settlement in the municipality of Dunkelsteinerwald in Melk District, Lower Austria in northeastern Austria....

, Heitzing

Heitzing

Heitzing is a settlement in the municipality of Dunkelsteinerwald in Melk District, Lower Austria in northeastern Austria....

, Hessendorf

Hessendorf

Hessendorf is a settlement in the municipality of Dunkelsteinerwald in Melk District, Lower Austria in northeastern Austria....

, Himberg

Himberg

Himberg is a municipality in the district of Wien-Umgebung in Lower Austria, Austria....

, Hohenwarth

Hohenwarth

Hohenwarth is a municipality in the district of Cham in Bavaria in Germany....

, Kicking

Kicking (Dunkelsteinerwald)

Kicking is a settlement in the municipality of Dunkelsteinerwald in Melk District, Lower Austria in northeastern Austria....

, Kochholz

Kochholz

Kochholz is a settlement in the municipality of Dunkelsteinerwald in Melk District, Lower Austria in northeastern Austria....

, Krapfenberg

Krapfenberg

Krapfenberg is a settlement in the municipality of Dunkelsteinerwald in Melk District, Lower Austria in northeastern Austria.-References:...

, Lanzing

Lanzing

Lanzing is a settlement in the municipality of Dunkelsteinerwald in Melk District, Lower Austria in northeastern Austria....

, Lerchfeld

Lerchfeld

Lerchfeld is a settlement in the municipality of Dunkelsteinerwald in Melk District, Lower Austria in northeastern Austria....

, Lottersberg

Lottersberg

Lottersberg is a settlement in the municipality of Dunkelsteinerwald in Melk District, Lower Austria in northeastern Austria.-References:...

, Mauer bei Melk

Mauer bei Melk

Mauer is a village in the municipality of Dunkelsteinerwald, in the Mostviertel in Lower Austria, Austria.-History:The designations muri, ad mura, apud mura or the German designations Mour or Mower were mentioned as early as in the 11th and 12th centuries. In 1083, the village was mentioned, the...

, Neuhofen

Neuhofen

Neuhofen is a municipality in the Rhein-Pfalz-Kreis, in Rhineland-Palatinate, Germany. It is situated approx. 7 km south of Ludwigshafen.-History:...

, Nölling

Nölling

Nölling is a settlement in the municipality of Dunkelsteinerwald in Melk District, Lower Austria in northeastern Austria.-References:...

, Ohnreith

Ohnreith

Ohnreith is a settlement in the municipality of Dunkelsteinerwald in Melk District, Lower Austria in northeastern Austria....

, Pfaffing

Pfaffing

Pfaffing is a municipality in the district of Rosenheim in Bavaria in Germany....

, Thal

Thal (Dunkelsteinerwald)

Thal is a settlement in the municipality of Dunkelsteinerwald in Melk District, Lower Austria in northeastern Austria....

, Umbach

Umbach

Umbach is a settlement in the municipality of Dunkelsteinerwald in Melk District, Lower Austria in northeastern Austria....

 und Ursprung

Ursprung

Ursprung is a settlement in the municipality of Dunkelsteinerwald in Melk District, Lower Austria in northeastern Austria....

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History

In the antiquity the area was part of the Roman province

Roman province

In Ancient Rome, a province was the basic, and, until the Tetrarchy , largest territorial and administrative unit of the empire's territorial possessions outside of Italy...

 of Noricum

Noricum

Noricum, in ancient geography, was a Celtic kingdom stretching over the area of today's Austria and a part of Slovenia. It became a province of the Roman Empire...

. Lying in the Austrian heartland of Lower Austria, the place took part in the eventful history of Austria

History of Austria

The history of Austria covers the history of the current country of Austria and predecessor states, from the Iron Age, through to a sovereign state, annexation by the German Third Reich, partition after the Second World War and later developments until the present day...

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Inhabitant development

After the result of the census of 2001, there were 2289 inhabitants. In 1991, the market municipality had 2025 inhabitants, up from 1941 in 1981 and 1911 in 1971.

Politics

The mayor of the market municipality is Franz Penz, the office manager Erich Galander. The 21 seats in the municipal council are currently assigned to the following parties: SPÖ 5, GREENs 1, ÖVP 15.

Buildings

• Roman
  Roman Empire
  The Roman Empire was the post-Republican period of the ancient Roman civilization, characterised by an autocratic form of government and large territorial holdings in Europe and around the Mediterranean....
  
   bridge at Lanzing, which was probably built in the 3rd or 4th centuries.

• Mauer parish church at Mauer bei Melk , with its carved altar from1509, a masterpiece of the late gothic
  Gothic architecture
  Gothic architecture is a style of architecture that flourished during the high and late medieval period. It evolved from Romanesque architecture and was succeeded by Renaissance architecture....
  
  . In the wings of the church, there are images showing the life of Lady Mary. Furthermore, the gothic Sakramenthäuschen is of artistic interest.

• Military church in Gerolding. The most interesting sights are the gothic pulpit
  Pulpit
  Pulpit is a speakers' stand in a church. In many Christian churches, there are two speakers' stands at the front of the church. Typically, the one on the left is called the pulpit...
  
  , a fresco from the 17th century, and the gothic presbyterium
  Presbyterium
  Presbyterium is a modern term used in the Catholic Church and Eastern Catholic Churches after the Second Vatican Council in reference to a college of priests, in active ministry, of an individual particular church such as a diocese or eparchy...
  
   with a "session niche".

• Parish church at Gansbach. The church probably originates from the 14th century. The side altar piece of the famous painter Kremser Schmidt and the high altarpiece, which was painted by one of his students, are worth seeing.