Burgenland, Apostolic Administration of

BURGENLAND, APOSTOLIC ADMINISTRATION OF. - Established on 18 May 1922 and comprising the parts of the Hungarian dioceses of Győr and Szombathely that passed to Austria with the Treaty of St-Germain (1919). Its administrator is the archbishop of Vienna pro tempore, who has his own vicar-general in the capital, Eisenstadt.

It is divided into 15 deaneries with 157 parishes. The B., the "land of castles," is politically one of the states of the Austrian Confederation, with its own government and diet; it has 3,977 sq km and 273,000 inhabitants, of whom 234,000 are Catholics; ethnically, 10,000 are Magyars, 40,000 Croats, and all the rest Germans.

From the 14th century onward the territory of the present-day B. passed repeatedly from Hungary to Austria and vice versa, as a pledge for military aid; from 1647 it remained united with Hungary until the peace treaty of St-Germain (10 Sept. 1919); but only on 3 Dec. 1922 was it definitively occupied. The remains of an early Christian church were found at Donnerskirchen. Noteworthy are the famous castles of Forchtenstein, Schlaining, Landsee, and Halbturn; as an example of a fortified village, Purbach; as rustic small towns, Eisenstadt and Rust. Sanctuaries: Frauenkirchen (14th century), Baumgarten (1465), Loreto (1431), the "Bergkirche" of Eisenstadt, a magnificent Baroque complex (1701-1705). - See Pl. XVI.