Roman centers, of which provincial archaeological finds remain, were Vindobona (Vienna), Juvavum (Salzburg) and the military port on the Danube of Lauriacum (Lorch). An interesting document of the already Christianized late empire is offered by the excavations of Teurnia near Spittal (5th century AD), with the fortifications using fragments of the previous Roman buildings and two early Christian basilicas, one of which with a floor mosaic of the type of Aquileia. In the early Middle Ages the religious and cultural dominance of the bishopric of Salzburg begins, on which the first great convents depend, such as Kremsmünster on the Danube: to it the Duke Tassilone of Bavaria in 788 he donated a goblet in inlaid and niellated gilded copper, of a mixed style between Byzantine and Barbarian, which is the most beautiful pre-Romanesque work of art. Romanesque emerged in the 11th-12th centuries: the churches of Gurk in Carinthia, of Klosterneuburg near Vienna and the cathedral of Salzburg (founded in 1181 and burned in 1598) reveal influences of the Lombard Romanesque. However, the Westwerk is already present, a large front atrium with several floors, closed between towers, typically Germanic. Between the sec. XI and XII Salzburg becomes a center of the art of miniature, close to that of Regensburg for its Byzantine accents: typical are the enormous Bibles with sacred scenes and stripes and squares on the same sheet, predating the Biblia pauperum of the fourteenth century. Between Romanesque and Gothic are the paintings in the Bishop’s chapel in the Gurk cathedral (1220-60), iconographically derived from the mosaics of San Marco in Venice. By this time, Gothic was already gaining ground, while Vienna was slowly replacing Salzburg as the dominant cultural center. Already in 1181 the great Limousin master Nicolas de Verdun had created his masterpiece, the enamels with scenes from the Testaments on the altar of Klosterneuburg, of a nervous linear game in the already proto-Gothic space. If in the first half of the century XIII the facade of St. Stephen in Vienna is still Romanesque (apart from the two towers in “flowery” Gothic of the XIV-XV centuries), in the second half of the century the typical Austrian Gothic architectural system was born, then spread to Bohemia and in the Alpine lands, the Hallenkirche with naves of equal height separated by sparse, very high polystyle pillars determining square spans, regent complicated vaults, usually umbrella-shaped. The result is a large and clear space, articulated, almost classic, in balance with the verticalism of the very high supports and vaults. The first example is the Heiligenkreuz choir (1295), then the choir (1304-49) and the naves (from 1359) of St. Stephen, culminating in the choir of Zwettl, by Meister Johann (from 1343). Also in the sculpture the transition from the Romanesque (between Lombard and Byzantine) of the Riesentor, the main portal of S. Stefano (end of the 13th century), to the pure Gothic, of French and Rhenish influence, of the sweet 14th-century Madonnas, among the such as the famous Madonna dei porter of 1325 ca. in S. Stefano. The very first German painted panels, the four stories of Jesus and Mary, are from the same yearson the back of the Klosterneuburg altar, with clear Sienese influences, the starting point for the Bohemian Gothic school. In the fourteenth century, in fact, the cultural and artistic center moved to Bohemia. In the early fifteenth century Austrian art entered the dense European interweaving of international Gothic, through exchanges with northern Italy (Stefano da Zevio, Andrea Bembo) and later with Swabian realism (H. Multscher). Also the masterpiece of late Gothic architecture, the choir of the Franciscan church in Salzburg (1408-52) is by a Bavarian, Hans Stetheimer. Typical product of fifteenth-century art, especially in Tyrol, are the enormous wooden Gothic altars, with painted statues and paintings on wood, whose main representatives were H. von Judenburg, H. Multscher (altar of Vipiteno, 1456-59) and M. Pacher, who conveys elements of the Renaissance of northern Italy (altars of Sankt Wolfgang near Salzburg, 1471-81; of Novacella, now in the Alte Pinakothek in Munich). In the early sixteenth century, the court of Emperor Maximilian I became a Renaissance center that blends Italian and German elements (in Innsbruck the loggia of the Goldenes Dachl by Jorg Kolderer is an example; the mausoleum in the court church, with the bronze statues of the ancestors of emperor, who worked from 1508 to 1583 by groups of German and Flemish artists, with the dominant personality of P. Vischer the Elder).

Carinthia

According to eningbo, K ä rnten, Austrian state with 9538 km ² area and 561 100 residents; The capital is Klagenfurt. Carinthia is located between the Hohe Tauern and Gurktal Alps in the north and the Carnic Alps and Karawanken in the south. Alpine pasture and wood industry as well as magnesite mining are of great importance; Industrial focuses are metal processing, electrical engineering, chemical and building materials industries. Tourism is an important source of income, especially in the Carinthian lakes area (Wörther, Ossiacher, Faaker and Millstätter See, Weissensee). State governor has been Peter Kaiser (* 1958, SPÖ) since 2013.

Burgenland

Burgenland, federal state in eastern Austria with anarea of3,962 km ² and 291,900 residents; The capital is Eisenstadt. The hilly country is mainly used for agriculture, the region around Lake Neusiedl is an important tourist region. State governor has been Hans Peter Doskozil (* 1970, SPÖ)since 2019.