The Austrian Circle (German: Österreichischer Reichskreis) was an Imperial Circle of the Holy Roman Empire. It was one of the four Imperial Circles created in 1512, 12 years after the original Reichsreform created six Circles.
The Austrian Circle was largely coterminous with the so-called Erblande ("Hereditary Lands") of the Habsburg family and roughly corresponds to present-day Austria (except for Salzburg), Slovenia and the Trentino-Alto Adige/Südtirol region of Northern Italy.
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Famous quotes containing the words austrian and/or circle:
“The war shook down the Tsardom, an unspeakable abomination, and made an end of the new German Empire and the old Apostolic Austrian one. It ... gave votes and seats in Parliament to women.... But if society can be reformed only by the accidental results of horrible catastrophes ... what hope is there for mankind in them? The war was a horror and everybody is the worse for it.”
—George Bernard Shaw (1856–1950)
“Yes, thou art gone! and round me too the night
In ever-nearing circle weaves her shade.”
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