BURGENLAND, APOSTOLIC ADMINISTRATION. — Established on 18 May 1922 and comprising the parts of the Hungarian dioceses of Giavarino and Sabaria that passed to Austria with the Treaty of St-Germain (1919). Its administrator is the archbishop of Vienna pro tempore, who has a provicar in the capital, Eisenstadt.
It is divided into 15 deaneries with 157 parishes. B., the “land of castles,” is politically one of the countries of the Austrian Confederation, with its own government and diet; it covers 3,977 sq km and has 273,000 inhabitants, of whom 234,000 are Catholics; ethnically, 10,000 are Magyars, 40,000 Croats, and all the rest Germans.
From the fourteenth century onward, the territory of present-day B. repeatedly passed from Hungary to Austria and vice versa, as a pledge for military assistance; from 1647 it remained united with Hungary until the Treaty of St-Germain (10 September 1919), but it was not definitively occupied until 3 December 1922. The remains of an early Christian church were discovered at Donnerskirchen. Notable are the famous castles of Forchenstein, Schlaining, Landsee, and Halbturm; as an example of a fortified borough, Purbach; and, as rustic towns, Eisenstadt and Rust. Sanctuaries: Frauenkirchen (fourteenth century), Baumgarten (1465), Loreto (1431), and the “Bergkirche” of Eisenstadt, a magnificent Baroque complex (1701–1705). — Vedi Tav. XVI.