Enns (city) - History

History

The first settlements in the area of the mouth of the Enns river to the Danube date back to 4000 years ago. Celts settled the land around 400 BC. Their kingdom of Noricum was incorporated into the Roman Empire in AD 15 and was designated as a Roman province under the reign of Emperor Claudius in AD 45.

In the second and third century, the Roman camp of Lauriacum, in which up to 6000 soldiers where stationed, was located on the site of modern Enns. The adjacent settlement (today: Lorch) received the privileges of a municipium in 212 from the Emperor Caracalla when about 30.000 people lived here. During the Diocletian Persecution of Christians, a commander of the Roman army, Saint Florian died as a martyr at Lauriacum on May 4, 304, when he was drowned in the Enns river. Only nine years later the Emperor Constantine I proclaimed religious tolerance with the Edict of Milan. About 370, an Early Christian basilica was built on the remains of a Jupiter temple and Lauriacum was the see of a bishop until 488. The modern St Lawrence Basilica of Lorch was built in 1344 upon the foundations of the old church

About 900 the Enisiburg castle, later Ennsegg Palace, was built on the Georgenberg hill to serve as a protective fortress against Magyar invasions. The surrounding settlement prospered from the 12th century onwards, when Ottokar II, Margrave of Styria established a market here. In 1186 the Georgenberg Pact was signed, an inheritance contract between Ottokar IV, Duke of Styria, who lacked a male heir, and the Babenberg duke of Austria, Leopold V. Following the death of Ottokar IV in 1192, his duchy of Styria — then significantly bigger than the contemporary state, reaching from present day Slovenia to Upper Austria — fell to the House of Babenberg. Thus, Enns became Austrian.

As Leopold VI, Duke of Austria, endowed Enns with town privileges in 1212, it is now considered Austria's oldest town (apart from the Roman municipal status). The landmark of Enns, the belfry (City Tower) on the Main Square, was erected between 1564 and 1568 as a bell tower, watch and clock tower under the reign of emperor Maximilian II.