Zwettl

Zwettl lies in the wooded Waldviertel of Lower Austria. Its name appears in the 1139 foundation charter of the nearby Cistercian abbey, and by 1200 the settlement had acquired urban importance. In 1403 the dukes Wilhelm and Albrecht granted the town an annual market, connecting its inhabitants with the surrounding countryside.

Hussite forces unsuccessfully besieged Zwettl in 1426 and 1427 but devastated the abbey and destroyed the hospital outside the walls. The fortifications were strengthened after the Hussite wars. During the Thirty Years' War, Bohemian troops entered the town in 1618 and Swedish troops occupied it in 1645.