Bad Kleinkirchheim

Bad Kleinkirchheim
Bad Kleinkirchheim
	Bad Kleinkirchheim in December 2005
Postal code	9546
Area code	04240
Vehicle registration	SP
Website	bad-kleinkirchheim.gv.at

Bad Kleinkirchheim is a municipality and

Carinthia, Austria

.

Until the middle of the 20th century, agriculture was the dominant focus, but it is now a renowned spa and ski resort. Although records show people appreciating the area as a recreation area as early as the 11th century, and the first bathing guests arriving in the 17th century, it was only in the last few decades that Bad Kleinkirchheim began to move away from agriculture and focus on its potential for tourism.

Geography

Location

Bad Kleinkirchheim is at an average elevation of 1,087 m (3,566 ft) in a 5 km (3 mi) stretch of a glacial trough valley in the Gurktal Alps (Nock Mountains), between the Millstätter See and the upper Gurk River. The populated section lies between 980 m (3,215 ft) and 1,380 m (4,528 ft), and the highest point in the area is the peak of the Klomnock, at 2,331 m (7,648 ft). North of Kleinkirchheim and St. Oswald, part of the Nockberge National Park is within the area’s boundaries.

To the north and south of the valley, the hills rise relatively steeply to an elevation of about 2,000 m (6,600 ft), so that the only way in and out is by the B88 road which links the area to Radenthein in the west and Reichenau in the east. Bad Kleinkirchheim also borders Krems in the northwest and Feld am See to the southwest.

Municipal arrangement

Bad Kleinkirchheim is divided into 3

Katastralgemeinden: Kleinkirchheim, Sankt Oswald, and Zirkitzen. It can be further divided into nine Ortschaften:^[3]

Kleinkirchheim	Sankt Oswald	Zirkitzen
Aigen (population: 57)	Sankt Oswald (168)	Rottenstein (99)
Bach (302)	Staudach (167)	Zirkitzen (418)
Kleinkirchheim (357)
Obertschern (127)
Unterschern (168)

History

The remote and densely forested valley apparently was not settled in Roman times, when the area became part of the Noricum province in 15 BC. From about 600, Alpine Slavs migrated up the Drava and its tributary valleys, followed by Bavarian settlers from the mid 8th century onwards. In the early 9th century, the region passed under Carolingian suzerainty. Part of the Imperial Duchy of Carinthia from 976, the Kleinkirchheim estates were held by the Bavarian Aribonid dynasty.

In a document dated 5 July 1166, in which Archbishop Conrad II of

Möll Valley

.

In 1469 Millstatt Abbey was dissolved and its estates passed to the Knightly Order of Saint George, established by Emperor

Ottoman forces who after the Fall of Constantinople already campaigned the Balkans and the Duchy of Carniola in the south. Turkish troops broke into the region in September 1473, robbing the town and plundering the valleys. On 25 June 1478 a group of about 600 farmers tried unsuccessfully to drive them out. By 1480 the Turks left, possibly as a result of an invasion by Hungarians under King Matthias Corvinus

.

During the

Crypto-Protestants still managed to smuggle books and hold secret meetings during the Counter-Reformation, and according to the 1781 Patent of Toleration issued by Emperor Joseph II

, a Protestant or a Jew would have nearly all the rights of a Catholic.

Bad Kleinkirchheim was shortly ruled within the French Illyrian Provinces during the Napoleonic Wars, but returned to the Austrian Empire in 1816. The Revolutions of 1848 also affected the area, as farmers (which then made up most of the town's population) got more rights.

Finally, in 1973, Bad Kleinkirchheim officially had the "Bad" (bath, spa) attached to its name, Kleinkirchheim, a reference to the popular hot spring.

Population

Historical population
Year	Pop.	±%
1869	915	—
1880	968	+5.8%
1890	970	+0.2%
1900	968	−0.2%
1910	1,062	+9.7%
1923	944	−11.1%
1934	1,055	+11.8%
1939	43	−95.9%
1951	1,268	+2848.8%
1961	1,352	+6.6%
1971	1,731	+28.0%
1981	1,783	+3.0%
1991	1,889	+5.9%
2001	1,863	−1.4%

93.4% of the inhabitants of Bad Kleinkirchheim are Austrian by nationality. The largest portion of the foreign population comes from South-East Europe (

Roman Catholicism, 30.8% are Protestants and 2.0% Orthodox, 0.8% are Muslims

, 3.5% are without religious confession.