Bludenz

Bludenz stands on the Ill where Alpine valleys converge beneath the Arlberg route. A settlement appeared in a Carolingian land register in 830, and the counts of Werdenberg founded the medieval town in 1265. Count Hugo I granted it town rights in 1274; the family castle overlooked the market and the surrounding lordship. In 1420 Bludenz and its territory passed to Austria, and Duke Frederick IV confirmed the inhabitants' privileges.

Mountain ores gave the town another occupation. A smelting works at Bludenz processed ore from the Montafon and neighbouring districts in the first half of the sixteenth century. Fire was a recurring danger: the town burned in 1444 and 1491, and another blaze in 1638 destroyed nearly all of it. From 1806 to 1814 Bludenz belonged to Bavaria, before returning to Austria after the Napoleonic wars.