Steyr - Encyclopedia

GEOGRAPHICAL NAMES

STEYR, or Steier, a town in Upper Austria, 28 m. S.E. of Linz by rail. Pop. (1900), 17,592. It is situated at the confluence of the Steyr with the Enns, and on an eminence rises the castle of the princes of Lamberg, dating from the 10th century. The parish church is in Gothic style and was built in 1443-1522. Steyr is the chief centre of the steel and iron industry of Upper Austria. The rifle factory, founded in 1830 by Josef Werndl, is the largest in Austria, and since 1882 it has added the manufacture of bicycles and electrical plant. It is the birthplace of the poet Alois Blumauer (1755-1798). Steyr was founded at the end of the Toth century and was the capital of a countship, first belonging to Styria, but annexed to Austria in 1192.