Burgenland

Burgenland is the most eastern federal state or Bundesland of Austria and consists of seven political counties (Eisenstadt-Umgebung, Güssing, Jennersdorf, Mattersburg, Neusiedl am See, Oberpullendorf und Oberwart) and 167 townships. It is 166 km long but only 5 km wide (at Sieggraben)

• Area: 3'965 km²
• Capital: Eisenstadt
• Population: 278.000 (11.000 of which in Eisenstadt)

Burgenland has a very long border: To the west it borders the Austrian provinces of Niederösterreich and Steiermark, Slovakia to the northeast, Hungary to the east and Slovenia to the south.

Burgenland shares the only lake without natural outflow in Europe with Hungary, the Neusiedler See.

First inhabitation dates of Burgenland back to the stone age. During the Roman Empire it formed the core of the province Pannonia. After the battle at Augsburg 955 German settlers started to inhabit the area.

Burgenland was given to Austria in 1459 but went to Hungary under Emperor Matthias Corvinus in the peace treaty of Ödenburg (1452). Maximilian I won Burgenland back for Austria while Kaiser Ferdinand II returned it to Hungary without a war.

After the demise of the Austrian-Hungarian monarchy in 1918 the inhabitants of Burgenland voted for reunification with Austria. The decision was fixed in the peace treaties of Saint Germain and Trianon. Only the area around Ödenburg (Sopron) was set up for a public vote. This area voted for unification with Hungary and is now called Sopron. From 1925 on Eisenstadt became the capital of Burgenland.