Rohrbach

Rohrbach grew at a meeting of roads carrying salt from the Danube towards Bohemia. Laid out as a market in the early thirteenth century, it offered rest and provisions to packhorse drivers before they crossed the Bohemian Forest. Its parish was attached to Schlägl Abbey in 1319, and the settlement was recorded as a market in 1320. Hussite forces destroyed the town and church in 1427; Duke Albert renewed its market rights in 1459.

Salt and cattle brought trade through Rohrbach, but restrictions imposed in favour of Freistadt ended the local salt trade around 1570. During the Upper Austrian Peasants' War, insurgents occupied Rohrbach and nearby Berg Castle in 1626. Linen trading later replaced the declining cattle trade as an important source of income, reaching its height around 1700. From 1749 Rohrbach also served as the seat of a district administration.