800 years of the town

Document discovered in archive

The town seal of St. Veit in 1500. Just as the settlement developed from a village to a market and finally to a town, the seal and coat of arms also changed.(Bild: Stadt St. Veit)

Village, market, town: St. Veit was first called "civitae sancti viti" at least 800 years ago. Historians knew about the document from 1224, but it was unclear where it was located.

"There was no act of city elevation, no exact date for becoming a city anywhere. Not even in St. Veit," says historian Stefan Regenfelder. The oldest surviving evidence of St. Veit as a "ville", or village, dates back to 1131. In 1199, the village became a "forum", or market.

Duke Bernhard II established his own mint in St. Veit, which contributed significantly to the economic prosperity of the town.(Bild: Stadt St. Veit)

"Duke Bernhard expanded the market, a town wall was built, a mint was established, tolls were levied, the settlement grew and became increasingly important economically and culturally," says Regenfelder about the process, which at some point culminated almost automatically in the word civitae without a formal town charter. The oldest evidence of this designation can be found in a document that is not very exciting in terms of its content: in 1224, Duke Bernhard II of Carinthia transferred two Huben from Gute Pulst to the Spital am Semmering monastery. The place where this document was signed is called "civitae sancti viti", the town of St. Veit.

On December 19, 1224, Duke Bernhard II signed the document in the "civitae sancti viti" (excerpt).(Bild: Stadt St. Veit)

"People knew about the document, but not how it was kept", says Regenfelder, who embarked on a long search. He found a document in the Styrian Provincial Archives that asked a banking family in Berlin for a copy of this document. Old documents with beautiful seals have always been popular collector's items. The document came from Berlin to the Waldstein family in the Czech Republic and is now in an archive in Prague.

The exhibition in the town hall also shows the development of the town seal: the one from 1281 shows St. Vitus in full size, later he is depicted as a bust with the two towers and two stars - as he can still be seen in the town coat of arms today.

"800 years of the town of St. Vitus are something special," says Mayor Martin Kulmer, delighted to be able to celebrate the anniversary during his term of office.

St. Veit seal from 1281: It shows St. Vitus.(Bild: Stadt St. Veit)

Exciting lecture at the opening on August 23
The exhibition, which was designed by the St. Veit Museum team - Stefan Regenfelder, Michael Jaritz and Lydia Elek - and in which visitors can delve even deeper into the exciting history using a QR code, will be opened on Friday, August 23 (6 pm) with a lecture by historian Martin Stermitz and can be seen free of charge in the town hall gallery until the end of the year.