ÖSTERREICH	AUSTRIA
Bundesland: Oberösterreich	Upper Austria
Bezirk: Perg

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Sankt Georg an der Gusen

Sankt Georg an der Gusen is situated at an elevation of 262 m in the east of the Upper Austrian Mühlviertel region at the entrance of the Gusen valley, about 14 km west-northwest of the district town Perg and about 13 km southeast of the the Upper Austrian capital, Linz. The municipality has a population of about 4,400 (2024).

The church of St. Georgen was first mentioned in 1288, the parish was first mentioned in 1367 as /i>St. Jörger Pfarr bey der Gusen. In 1585 the settlement was first mentioned in a registry of market towns; however, the privileges of a market town likely were obtained much earlier. In the 16th and 17th centuries, the parish was Protestant. The Machland peasant movement also had numerous followers here. From 1784 onwards, the cadastral communities of St. Georgen, Langenstein, Luftenberg and Pürach were created in the area of ​​the parish of St. Georgen, which, after the end of manorialism, became independent political communities in 1848. The Summerau Railway (connecting Linz with České Budějovice) has been running through the community since 1873. The train station of St. Georgen is, however, located in the area of the neighbouring municipality of Luftenberg. During the World War II, Sankt Georgen an der Gusen was the headquarters of the Mauthausen granite works of the Deutsche Erd- und Steinwerke Berlin and thus the economic command centre for the concentration camps in Gusen and Mauthausen. Not far from the town centre was the second largest underground factory in Nazi Germany for the serial production of Messerschmitt Me 262 jet fighters, the first series-production military aircraft with jet engines. The industrial plants built in Linz during World War II led to a rapid growth of the population in Sankt Georgen an der Gusen from the 1950s onwards.

The parish church of Sankt Georg [background centre] was first mentioned in 1288. At first it was filial church of the parish of Steyregg. It obtained the status of a parish church in 1784. The original church of the late Middle Ages was not vaulted. An inscription on the southern gate mentions the year 1538. The chancel was built in the beginning of the 16th century. When the church was remodelled in Baroque style in the 17th century, it received a vaulting in 1665. In 1911/1912 the nave was extended by two bays to the west. In 1865, the church tower from the 15th century was heightened by a bell storey and a new roof. In 1987, a new sacristy was built and the side altars were removed.

[https://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/St._Georgen_an_der_Gusen; https://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bahnstrecke_Linz%E2%80%93Gaisbach-Wartberg; https://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pfarrkirche_St._Georgen_an_der_Gusen]