Braunau am Inn

Braunau stands on the lower Inn, a river long used for trade through Bavarian lands. First recorded as Prounaw in 1120, it received town rights in 1260 and grew into a fortified river town. A fire in 1380 destroyed its wooden buildings and the bridge. The parish church of St Stephen was built in the fifteenth century, with the foundation of its tall tower laid in 1492.

During the Bavarian uprising of 1705–06, rebels took Braunau and made it a military and political centre; a defensive congress known as the Braunau Parliament met here. The Peace of Teschen transferred the town and the Innviertel from Bavaria to the Habsburgs in 1779, turning the Inn into a frontier. During the Napoleonic wars the region briefly returned to Bavaria, before the Treaty of Munich placed it under Austria in 1816.