Place:Sankt Pölten

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Short description: Capital city of Lower Austria

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Sankt Pölten

Sankt Pödn  (Bavarian)
Statutory city
From top down, left to right: Rathausplatz with Franciscan Church and Monastery, Sankt Pölten Cathedral, view of the city, City Hall, Lower Austrian Government Quarter
Flag of Sankt Pölten
Flag
Coat of arms of Sankt Pölten
Coat of arms
Location of St. Pölten within Lower Austria
Location of St. Pölten within Lower Austria
Sankt Pölten is located in Lower Austria
Sankt Pölten
Sankt Pölten
Location within Lower Austria
Sankt Pölten is located in Austria
Sankt Pölten
Sankt Pölten
Location within Austria
Coordinates: [ ⚑ ] : 48°12′00″N 15°37′00″E / 48.2°N 15.6166667°E / 48.2; 15.6166667
Country Austria
StateTemplate:Country data Lower Austria
DistrictStatutory city
Government
 • MayorMatthias Stadler (SPÖ)
Area
 • TotalTemplate:Austria population Wikidata km2 (Formatting error: invalid input when rounding sq mi)
Elevation
267 m (876 ft)
Population
 (2025)[1]
 • Total59,767
Time zoneUTC+1 (CET)
 • Summer (DST)UTC+2 (CEST)
Postal code
3100, 3104, 3105, 3106, 3107, 3108, 3140, 3151, 3385
Area code02742
Vehicle registrationP
Websitewww.st-poelten.gv.at

Sankt Pölten (de-AT; Central Bavarian: Sankt Pödn), mostly abbreviated to the official name St. Pölten,[2] is the capital and largest city of the State of Lower Austria in northeast Austria, with 59,767 inhabitants as of 1 January 2025. St. Pölten is a city with its own statute (or Statutarstadt) and therefore it is both a municipality and a district in the Mostviertel. Due to its cultural status, it has recently enjoyed an increase of visitors passing through Sankt Pölten on their way to Vienna.

Geography

The city lies on the Traisen river and is located north of the Alps and south of the Wachau. It is part of the Mostviertel, the southwest region of Lower Austria.

Subdistricts

St Pölten is divided into the following subdistricts: Altmannsdorf, Dörfl at Ochsenburg, Eggendorf, Ganzendorf, Hafing, Harland, Hart, Kreisberg, Matzersdorf, Mühlgang, Nadelbach, Oberradlberg, Oberwagram, Oberzwischenbrunn, Ochsenburg, Pengersdorf, Pottenbrunn, Pummersdorf, Ragelsdorf, Ratzersdorf at the Traisen, Reitzersdorf, Schwadorf, Spratzern, St Georgen on the Steinfelde, St Pölten, Stattersdorf, Steinfeld, Teufelhof, Unterradlberg, Unterwagram, Unterzwischenbrunn, Viehofen, Völtendorf, Waitzendorf, Wasserburg, Weitern, Wetzersdorf, Windpassing, Witzendorf, Wolfenberg, Wörth and Zwerndorf.

Transport

The city's main railway station, St. Pölten Hauptbahnhof, is located directly on the West railway of the ÖBB and is also the terminus of the Leobersdorfer Railway, the Mariazellerbahn, the regional railway to Tulln and the regional railway to Krems. It is at the intersection of the Western Motorway A1 and the Kremser Speedway S33, and is traversed by the Vienna Road B1. St Pölten is a junction of the Wieselbus bus lines, which provides radial connections between the capital and the different regions of Lower Austria.

In the city

Between 1911 and 1976, a tramline operated in St Pölten. Today, a network of eleven bus lines operates at regular intervals within the city. Every summer, a free tourist train in the city centre connects the ancient parts of the city with the government district.

Climate

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History

The oldest part of the city is built on the site of the ancient Roman city of Aelium Cetium that existed between the 2nd and the 4th century AD. A Benedictine monastery was founded in 791;[6] in the year 799, it was called Treisma. St Pölten did not become a town until 1050, and officially became a city in 1169. Until 1494, St Pölten was part of the diocese of Passau, and then became the property of the state. In 1081 it hosted the Augustinian Chorherren, and in 1784 their Kollegiatsstift closed. Since 1785, this building has hosted the cathedral of St Pölten. The city replaced Vienna as the capital of Lower Austria with a resolution by the Lower Austrian parliament on 10 July 1986. The Lower Austrian government has been hosted in St Pölten since 1997.

The name Sankt Pölten is derived from St. Hippolytus of Rome (a martyred early Church Father). The city was renamed to Sankt Hippolyt, then clipped to St Polyt, and finally St Pölten.

Largest groups of foreign residents
Nationality Population (2025)
 Syria 1527
 Turkey 1343
 Romania 1197
 Ukraine 831
 Hungary 834
 Bosnia and Herzegovina 763
 Germany 683
 Serbia 356
 Croatia 348
 Slovakia 285
 Poland 250
 Iraq 191
 Italy 163
 Bulgaria 123
 Czech Republic 110
 Slovenia 37

Politics

Municipal council and City's senate (Outdated as of 2021)

Municipal council

The municipal council (Gemeinderat) consists of 45 members. Since the 2026 local elections, it is made up of the following parties:[7]

  • Social Democratic Party of Austria (SPÖ): 19 seats
  • Austrian People's Party (ÖVP): 9 seats
  • Freedom Party of Austria (FPÖ): 8 seats
  • The Greens - The Green Alternative (GRÜNE): 4 seats
  • NEOS - The New Austria and Liberal Forum (NEOS): 1 seat
  • Communist Party of Austria (KPÖ): 1 seat

The current mayor of the city, Matthias Stadler, was first elected by the municipal council in 2004.[8]

City's senate

The town hall

The City's senate (Stadtsenat) consists of 13 members. It is chaired by the mayor. The other members—two vice-mayors and eleven town councillors—are appointed by the municipal council, with party affiliations according to the election results.[9]

  • Mayor Matthias Stadler (SPÖ)
  • Deputy Mayor Harald Ludwig (SPÖ)
  • Deputy Mayor Matthias Adl (ÖVP)
  • Councillor: Ewald Buschenreiter (SPÖ)
  • Councillor: Dietmar Fenz (SPÖ)
  • Councillor: Renate Gamsjäger (SPÖ)
  • Councillor: Heinz Hauptmann (SPÖ)
  • Councillor: Ingrid Heihs (SPÖ)
  • Councillor: Walter Hobiger (SPÖ)
  • Councillor: Gabriele Vavra (SPÖ)
  • Councillor: Mario Burger (ÖVP)
  • Councillor: Florian Krumböck (ÖVP)
  • Councillor: Klaus Otzelberger (FPÖ)
  • Councillor: Christina Engel-Unterberger (GRÜNE)
The city's Seal

Coat of arms, colours and seals

The arms' blazon is silver and azure; on the right a fess gules, on the left a wolf rampant silver langued gules and armed Or.

The colours of the city are red and yellow. The seal of the city contains its coat of arms surrounded by the text Landeshauptstadt St. Pölten. The administration's seal of the magistrate also contains the city's coat of arms with the text Magistrat der Stadt St. Pölten.

Economy

As of 15 May 2001, 40,041 people worked in 2,711 companies in the city. 23 of those companies are large-scale enterprises with more than 200 employees each.

Media

Several media companies are based in St Pölten. These are "@cetera", a literary-cultural magazine; "City-Flyer", an online magazine describing the cultural offerings of the city, which is published on paper monthly; "Campus Radio", a radio station from the University of Applied Sciences; "HiT FM", a radio station broadcasting in Lower Austria; "LetHereBeRock", an online youth magazine about the alternative rock scene; NÖN, a Lower Austrian newspaper; the Austrian Broadcasting Corporation for Lower Austria; and the local television channel "P3tv".

Large-scale enterprises

The largest companies based in St Pölten are the furniture producer Leiner, the paper manufacturer Salzer, and the family owned engineering conglomerate Voith.

Transport

The nearest airport is Vienna Airport, which is located 87 km (54 mi) southeast of St Pölten. It can easily be accessed by train operated by Railjet and road.

Public facilities

Educational facilities

  • Bundesgymnasium and Bundesrealgymnasium St. Pölten[10] (public gymnasium)
  • Public educational facility for kindergarten pedagogy and social pedagogy
  • Public economics school and economics academy
  • Bundesreal- and Bundesoberstufenrealgymnasium (BORG) Schulring (public high-level gymnasium)
  • St. Pölten University of Applied Sciences (fields: computer simulation, media management, social work, telecommunication and media)
  • Public higher educational facility for professions in economics and school for social professions
  • Public higher technical educational facility and laboratory (fields: EDP and organisation, electronics, electrical engineering, machine engineering, economic engineering) with university of applied sciences for machine construction
  • New Design University (interior architecture and graphics design)
  • Lower Austrian state academy
  • Philosophical-theological university
  • Folk high school
  • Lower Austrian institute for promotion of economy development (WIFI)

Leisure and sports sites

Aerial photo
NV Arena

Swimming is available at Aquacity (indoor swimming pool), the St. Pölten outdoor swimming pool and Ratzersdorf Lake (a bathing pond where a nudist beach, beach volleyball, and miniature golf are available). For fitness training there is the City-Treff - Pueblo, the Lifeline, the Reebok and the Seepark. In addition, the city has:

  • American football Club – St. Pölten Invaders
  • Badminton Club
  • Golf club St. Pölten
  • Skittles at the leisure park Megafun
  • Miniature golf at the Tennis-Allround Center
  • Model aircraft airport of the BSV VOITH
  • Riding club St. Pölten-Wagram
  • Shooting range of the private Schützenkompagnie
  • Skatepark
  • Gliding club St. Pölten

St Pölten hosts a primary base of the Lower Austrian state sports school.

Tennis

Every year in the third week of May an ATP 250 tournament takes place in St Pölten. There are multiple local tennis stadiums, including the Arena im Aufeld, the tennis centre Allround, the tennis courts by the local ice sport association 1872, the courts in St. Georgen, the courts at the Ratzersdorfer Pond, the courts in the Lower Austrian state sports school and the courts of the leisure park Megafun.

International relations

Twin towns/sister cities

St Pölten is twinned with the following cities:[11]

  • United States Altoona, Pennsylvania, United States (since 2000)[12]
  • Czech Republic Brno, South Moravian Region, Czech Republic (since 1990)[13][14]
  • France Clichy, Hauts-de-Seine, Île-de-France, France (since 1968)
  • Germany Heidenheim, Baden-Württemberg, Germany (since 1967)
  • Japan Kurashiki, Okayama Prefecture, Japan (since 1957)
  • China Wuhan, Hubei, China (since 2005)

Culture and objects of interest

Sankt Pölten Cathedral
State administrative building
Theatre
State Museum
Klangturm
State Library

Theatres

  • Lower Austrian state theatre
  • Bühne im Hof
  • Festspielhaus St. Pölten

Museums

  • Diocese museum St. Pölten
  • Museum im Hof
  • Lower Austrian state museum
  • Lower Austrian documentation institute for modern art
  • Private museum "Wilhelmsburger ornament and utensil dishes"
  • City museum St. Pölten

Others

  • Repertory theatre Cinema Paradiso
  • Former synagogue
  • Klangturm (tower), the city's landmark
  • Stadtsäle (public event hall)
  • Youth culture hall frei.raum
  • VAZ (Veranstaltungszentrum, event-centre)
  • Underground, a pub in the inner city
  • Tonkünstler Orchestra
  • Business Center Niederösterreich
  • Apotheke zum goldenen Löwen (pharmacy since 1545), oldest shop in town, famous baroque facing

Regular events

  • ATP tennis tournament
  • Cinema at the cathedral (Film am Dom)
  • Capital city festival
  • International culture and film festival
  • Parliament festival
  • St Pölten festival weeks "Klangweile"
  • St Pölten Höfefest
  • FM4 Frequency Festival
  • Pro Golf Tour tournament

Notable people

See also: Category:People from Sankt Pölten
Julius Raab, 1961
  • Jakob Prandtauer (1660–1726), Austrian Baroque architect, died locally
  • Ernst Stöhr (1860–1917), painter, graphic artist, writer and founding member of the Vienna Secession
  • Julius Raab, (1891–1964), conservative politician, Chancellor of Austria, 1953–1961
  • Walter Fischer (1901–1978), medical doctor, journalist, radio broadcaster, poet and resistance fighter
  • Maria Emhart (1901–1981), resistance activist, survived the Hitler years and became a national politician (SPÖ)
  • Otto Demus (1902–1990), art historian and Byzantinist; member of the Vienna School of Art History
  • Walter Graf (1903–1982), musicologist
  • Heinrich Maier (1908–1945), priest and resistance fighter against Nazi Germany, attended local gymnasium
  • Bernhard Wicki (1919–2000), Austrian-Swiss actor, film director and screenwriter
  • Karl Österreicher (1923–1995), conductor, music educator, died locally
  • Peter Minich (1927–2013), stage actor who became a tenor performing in operas, operettas and musical films
  • Jörg Demus, (1928–2019), Austrian classical pianist
  • Lolita (1931–2010), singer and actress
  • Erwin Leder, (born 1951), actor e.g. Das Boot & Underworld
  • Alfred Gusenbauer, (born 1960), politician (SPÖ) and former Chancellor of Austria, 2007/2008
  • Martin Fiala, (DE Wiki) (born 1961), Austrian composer
  • Oliver Stummvoll (born 1995), model
  • The Clairvoyants (founded 2011), (Thommy Ten and Amélie van Tass) magician and mentalist duo

Sport

  • Franz Binder (1911–1989), footballer and coach; played 242 games and 28 for Austria & Germany
  • Karl Daxbacher (born 1953), football manager and player; played 393 games for FK Austria Wien & 6 for Austria
  • Jochen Fallmann (born 1979), football coach and a former player who played over 450 games
  • Markus Wagesreiter (born 1982), handball player who has played 134 games for Austria
  • Lukas Mössner (born 1984), footballer who played over 370 games
  • Maria Gstöttner (born 1984), football striker, played 467 games for SV Neulengbach and also for Austria women
  • Benjamin Karl (born 1985), snowboarder with medals from three Winter Olympics

Literature

  • Klaus Nüchtern: Kleines Gulasch in St. Pölten (German): ISBN 3-85439-306-7
  • Thomas Karl: St. Pölten – Ein Wandel durch die Zeit (German): ISBN 3-89702-641-4
  • Otto Kapfinger, Michaela Steiner: St. Pölten neu (German): ISBN 3-211-82954-7

References

  1. ↑ "Population 01.01.2025". https://www.statistik.at/statistiken/bevoelkerung-und-soziales/bevoelkerung/bevoelkerungsstand/bevoelkerung-zu-jahres-/-quartalsanfang. 
  2. ↑ "St. Pöltner Stadtrecht 1977". https://www.ris.bka.gv.at/GeltendeFassung.wxe?Abfrage=LrNO&Gesetzesnummer=20000101. 
  3. ↑ "Klimamittelwerte 1991–2020" (in de). Central Institute for Meteorology and Geodynamics. https://www.zamg.ac.at/cms/de/dokumente/klima/dok_klimauebersichten/copy_of_klimanormalperiode_19912020.xlsx. 
  4. ↑ "Klimamittel 1981–2010: Schnee" (in de). Central Institute for Meteorology and Geodynamics. https://www.zamg.ac.at/cms/de/dokumente/klima/dok_ip-klimawandel/daten-download/klimamittel-schnee. 
  5. ↑ "Klimadaten von Österreich 1971–2000 – Niederösterreich-St. Pölten" (in de). Central Institute for Meteorology and Geodynamics. http://www.zamg.ac.at/fix/klima/oe71-00/klima2000/klimadaten_oesterreich_1971_frame1.htm. 
  6. ↑ Fasching, Heinrich (1985). Dom und Stift St. Pölten und ihre Kunstschätze. Leinen: Verlag Niederösterr. Pressehaus. pp. 19. ISBN 3853267270. 
  7. ↑ "Gemeinderatswahlen St. Pölten - Land Niederösterreich" (in de). https://www.noe.gv.at/noe/Wahlen/GemeinderatswahlenStPoelten.html. 
  8. ↑ "Bürgermeister – St. Pölten". https://www.st-poelten.at/gv-buergerservice/politik/buergermeister. 
  9. ↑ "Stadtsenat – St. Pölten". https://www.st-poelten.at/gv-buergerservice/politik/stadtsenat. 
  10. ↑ "Home". http://www.bgstpoelten.ac.at/. 
  11. ↑ "Städtepartnerschaften" (in de). Sankt Pölten city. https://www.st-poelten.at/kultur/kulturservice/internationale-kontakte/8551-staedtepartnerschaften. 
  12. ↑ "Sister City program still alive | News, Sports, Jobs - Altoona Mirror" (in en-US). https://www.altoonamirror.com/news/local-news/2018/03/sister-city-program-still-alive/. 
  13. ↑ "City of Brno Foreign Relations - Statutory city of Brno" (in cs). City of Brno. 2003. http://www2.brno.cz/index.php?lan=en&nav01=2222&nav02=1249. 
  14. ↑ "Brno - Partnerská města" (in cs). City of Brno. 2006–2009. http://www.brno.cz/index.php?nav02=1985&nav01=34&nav03=1010&nav04=1016&nav05=1249&nav06=1272. 

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