Fürstenfeld

Fürstenfeld stood near Styria's frontier with Hungary, where urban life repeatedly met the demands of defense. In 1605 Hajduk forces plundered and occupied the town, burning ninety-two houses. The danger of another Ottoman campaign led to the strengthening of its fortifications in 1664. Four years later a Marian column was erected in the main square to commemorate the victory at Mogersdorf in that year.

The town also developed a distinctive manufacturing history. In 1691 Johann Christoph Liscutin founded a tobacco factory in the Pfeilburg. This placed a new industry inside one of Fürstenfeld's historic buildings, alongside the defenses and churches that shaped the settlement. The parish church, itself badly damaged during the 1605 attack, was remodelled between 1772 and 1778 under master builder Leopold Ainspinner. Destruction, renewed fortification and the adaptation of older buildings are therefore concrete threads in the town's early modern history.