Regau

Regau is a municipality in Austria

Austria

Austria , officially the Republic of Austria , is a landlocked country of roughly 8.3 million people in Central Europe. It borders both 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...

 near Vöcklabruck

Vöcklabruck

Vöcklabruck is the administrative center of the Vöcklabruck district, Austria. It is located in the western part of Upper Austria, close to the A1 Autobahn as well as the B1 highway, and has been ranked in the top 10 most-visited cities in Austria....

, which is the capital of the region. This Upper Austria

Upper Austria

Upper Austria is one of the nine states or Bundesländer of Austria. Its capital is Linz. Upper Austria borders on Germany and the Czech Republic, as well as on the other Austrian states of Lower Austria, Styria, and Salzburg...

n municipality has 6,000 inhabitants of which about 700 live in the village of Regau itself.

Geography and population

Regau is bordered on the north by the river Ager. Another important body of water is the Baggersee, an artificial lake where many people like to stay in summer for swimming or other sports. Regau's football stadium, used by the Union Regau, is located nearby.

The municipality is composed of 36 smaller villages of which Schalchham with more than 1000 inhabitants is the largest. Other important villages are of course Regau, Rutzenmoos (a predominantly Protestant village with a church), Wankham, and the Lixlau.

About 53,5% of Regau's area is used for agriculture, another third is covered by forests.

History

Regau's was first mentioned in a deed more than 1200 years ago, in 800 CE. At that time, Regau was the seat of the Earls of Rebegau Their castle is thought to have been near the village of Burgstall (translated: castle stable), which still exists.

The origin of the name Regau was the Latin Repagauve; later, this became Rebengau in German. Over time, this name was shortened and nowadays the municipality is called Regau. All its names show that Regau once was famous for viniculture.

From the twelfth century Regau has been part of the Duchy of Austria, before that it was part of Bavaria

Bavaria

Bavaria , with an area of and almost 12.5 million inhabitants, is located in the southeast of Germany and is the largest state of Germany by area, forming almost 20% of the total land area of Germany...

. Since 1490 Regau has been part of the princedom Austria above the Enns, today called Upper Austria

Upper Austria

Upper Austria is one of the nine states or Bundesländer of Austria. Its capital is Linz. Upper Austria borders on Germany and the Czech Republic, as well as on the other Austrian states of Lower Austria, Styria, and Salzburg...

, of which Regau has been a part since 1918.

June, 28th of 1981 Regau was officially given a coat of arms. In 2000 Regau was elevated from village to market. (In Austria there are three different kinds of municipalities: villages, markets and cities.)

Culture and Sights

Rutzenmoos is the home of the Protestant Museum of Upper Austria

In Regau there are many traditional associations such as:

• The Regau civil guard
• The Regau civil guard's band
• a group of Goldhauben

and one society for contemporary culture, which is named Treffpunkt Kulturverein Regau.

Moreover there are many other societies.

There are three churches in Regau:

• St. Peter's church in Regau's centre, a gothic building
• St. Vitus church in Upper Regau
• the Protestant church of Rutzenmoos

Regau is connected to the Way of St. James

Way of St. James

The Way of St. James or St. James' Way is the pilgrimage to the Cathedral of Santiago de Compostela in Galicia in northwestern Spain, where tradition has it that the remains of the apostle Saint James are buried....

.

The Union Regau is the municipality's most important sporting club.

External links

Official website of Regau Official website of the Treffpunkt Kulturverein Regau