Perg

Perg lies on the Naarn north of the Danube, at the edge of the Machland plain. Named for the lords of Perg, the market received its rights from King Ottokar II of Bohemia in 1269. Its citizens included millstone cutters, stonemasons and potters, whose guilds gave the settlement a distinctive livelihood. The Habsburg ruler placed the market under the lordship of Freistadt, while leaving it a measure of local independence.

Perg became a separate parish in 1542. In neighbouring Pergkirchen Protestant pastors drew worshippers from the surrounding country during the sixteenth century, but preachers and schoolmasters were ordered to leave in 1624 as Catholic rule was restored. During the Napoleonic wars French troops made camp at Perg in 1805; four years later soldiers passed through the district, bringing billeting and plunder.