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As of 1 January 2025, Judenburg had 9,623 residents with a main residence in the municipality, or 9,908 including secondary residences. The municipality covers 63.77km2 (24.62sqmi) and lies at an elevation of 737m (2,418ft). Its localities include Murdorf, Strettweg, Oberweg and Reifling. On 1 January 2015, the adjoining municipalities of Oberweg and Reifling were merged into Judenburg as part of the Styrian municipal structural reform.
The area around Judenburg was settled long before the medieval town developed. Archaeological evidence from the nearby Falkenberg shows iron mining and smelting activity during the early Iron Age, and the wider area is associated with important Hallstatt-period finds. In the Middle Ages, Judenburg grew into a significant trading and administrative centre in the southeastern Alpine region. Its name reflects the historical presence of Jewish merchants and residents; the earliest documentary reference to Jews in Judenburg dates from 1290. Judenburg does not have any Jewish residents currently, with the last Jews of the town ousted by the Nazis in 1938.
Judenburg reached its greatest economic importance in the late Middle Ages, when it held commercial privileges and served as a centre of trade and administration for large parts of Upper Styria. The Stadtturm, built around 1500, is the town’s best-known landmark and a symbol of its former prosperity. Since 2006, the tower has housed a planetarium.
Today, Judenburg functions as a regional administrative, educational, commercial and service centre for the western part of the Murtal. Its old town preserves several historic buildings, including burgher houses around the main square, churches and remnants of the town’s medieval urban structure.
Geography
It is located in the Upper Styrian region, on the western end of the Aichfeld basin, stretching along the Mur River from Judenburg down to Knittelfeld in the east. The broad valley is bound by the Niedere Tauern range in the north and the Noric Alps (Lavanttal Alps) in the south.
The municipal area also comprises the cadastral communities of Tiefenbach and Waltersdorf, a former municipality incorporated in 1963.
The municipal area includes the following ten villages (populations as of January 1, 2020):
Auerling (129)
Feeberg (176)
Gasselsdorf (28)
Judenburg (8,386)
Oberweg (517)
Ossach (45)
Reifling (57)
Ritzersdorf (15)
Strettweg (367)
Waltersdorf (133)
History
City Tower
Archaeological findings indicate that the area was settled at least since the days of the Celtic kingdom of Noricum. Judenburg itself was first mentioned in a 1074 staple right deed as mercatum Judinburch, a market town within the estates of Eppenstein Castle, the ancestral seat of the Bavarian Eppensteiner noble family, who ruled as Styrian margraves in the 11th century. The name literally means "Jews' Borough", referring to the town's origin as a trading outpost on the route from the Mur Valley across the Obdach Saddle mountain pass to Carinthia, in which Jews played an important role, being represented in the city's coat of arms.
Upon the extinction of the Eppensteiner dynasty in 1122, the estates passed to the Styrian Otakars and in 1192 to the House of Babenberg, Dukes of Austria since 1156. Judenburg received town privileges in 1224 and the right to collect tolls in 1277. The town grew to an important commercial centre for iron ore mined at nearby Eisenerz, but also for valeriana celtica used in perfumes during the 13th and 14th centuries. Judenburg was even granted a valeriana trade monopoly by the Habsburg emperor Frederick III in 1460. After several pogroms, all Jews were expelled from the Duchy of Styria by order of Emperor Maximilian I in 1496. Following his breakthrough in Italy, General Napoléon Bonaparte made his headquarters at Judenburg and it was there, on the night of 7–8 April 1796, that he signed the Truce of Judenburg with the Austrians.
In the beginning of the 20th century, the town was one of the centres of Austria-Hungary's steel industry and also a garrison city of the Austro-Hungarian Army. From 1910 to 1914, one of the first trolleybusses in Austria connected Judenburg station with the town's centre. Little remains of the former industry today, but Judenburg remains an industrial and trade centre. In May 1918, the city was the site of a failed military mutiny.
In 1938, with the annexation of Austria by Nazi Germany, Judenburg became part of the Third Reich. Due to the presence of the word Jude ("Jew") in the town's name, many possible new names were suggested, including Zirbenstadt (after Zirbe, the German name for the Swiss pine tree) and Adolfsburg (in honor of Adolf Hitler). However, the planned renaming was indefinitely postponed after the outbreak of war and ultimately never happened.
Judenburg is a member of the Douzelage, a unique town twinning association of 24 towns across the European Union. This active town twinning began in 1991 and there are regular events, such as a produce market from each of the other countries and festivals. Discussions regarding membership are also in hand with three further towns (Agros in Cyprus, Škofja Loka in Slovenia, and Tryavna in Bulgaria).
↑Vgl. Michael Schiestl: „Zirbitz-“, „Adolf-“ oder „Jubelburg“. Dokumente des „gesunden Volksempfindens“. In: Berichte des Museumsvereines Judenburg. 33 (2000), S. 23–32.
↑Strunz, Gunnar: Steiermark: Das grüne Herz Österreichs, p. 130. (link)
