Bruck an der Leitha

Bruck an der Leitha, Lower Austria, town in the district of Bruck an der Leitha, alt. 157 m, pop. 7,259, area 23.64 km², situated in the Leitha Valley in the depression of the Brucker Pforte. - District council, district court, tax office, Employment Services, District Chamber of Agriculture, police office, Economic Chamber, Institute of Soil Conservation of the Lower Austrian Agricultural District Office, health and social insurance office, Bundesgymnasium and Bundesrealgymnasium secondary schools, commercial academy (HAK), agricultural school, leisure centre; municipal theatre; Congregation of the Sisters of the Sorrowful Mother; economy dominated by the service sector (in 1991 around 67 % of all employed people worked in this sector; mainly trade, social, personal and public services), pet-food factory, oil mill (replaced the former sugar refinery), production of photo albums and stationery for schools, production of prestressing cables.

Foundation (in the 13^th century) according to strict building plans with regular blocks of buildings, remains of the medieval fortress still extant; Baroque parish church (1696-1702) with a high altar painting by the school of D. Gran; chapel of the former citizens' hospital (1762); Renaissance town hall with Rococo balcony, district court (Renaissance building, late 16^th century); patrician town houses (mainly 18^th century); ornamented columns (17^th and 18^th centuries); Prugg Castle (first documented mention in 1242, former medieval moated castle with an early Gothic donjon, remodelled in Baroque style after 1706 by J. L. v. Hildebrandt, façades from 1854 to 1858 in Tudor style), tapestry and ancestral halls, large park named after the Harrach dynasty (parts of the former riverine wetlands along the Leitha river); municipal hall (1959).

Literature: Österr. Städtebuch, vol. V, part 1, Die Städte Niederösterreichs, 1988.