Liezen

Liezen lies in the Enns valley of Upper Styria, close to the route across the Pyhrn Pass. It was recorded around 1130 in a register of Admont Abbey under the name Luecen. Its position on the pass and iron ore mining at Salberg, documented from the thirteenth century, both contributed to the local economy. The church of St Vitus was rebuilt in late Gothic form in the late fifteenth century. It was incorporated into Rottenmann Abbey in 1515 and became an independent Catholic parish in 1614, after a period in which it had been Protestant. Following the plague of 1714–15, a Baroque Calvary church was erected on the Salberg. Farming, mining and traffic through the valley connected this Alpine settlement with the surrounding region.