Styria
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Styria
Styria
(also Steiermark), a historical region of Central Europe, in the basin of the Mur River. The historical nucleus of Styria was the Carinthian Mark, which was one of several territories that remained when Greater Carantania broke up in the early 11th century. In 1180 the Carinthian, or Styrian, Mark became a duchy of the Holy Roman Empire. Inhabited chiefly by Slovenes, Styria was subjected to German colonization and germanization. It became a possession of the Babenberg dukes of Austria in 1192 and passed to the Hapsburgs in 1282. From 1867 to 1918 it was a crown land of the Austro-Hungarian Empire. Under the Treaty of St. Germain (1919), most of Styria went to Austria, forming the Bundesland (federal state) of Styria; the remainder, including the city of Maribor, was incorporated into the Kingdom of the Serbs, Croats, and Slovenes, which became the Kingdom of Yugoslavia in 1929.
Styria
(also Steiermark), a Bundesland (federal state) of Austria. Area, 16,400 sq km. Population, 1,193,600 (1975). The capital is the city of Graz. Styria is divided according to relief into two regions: Upper Styria, an area of high mountains in the northwest that includes the Niedere Tauern, Dachstein, and the Eisenerz Alps, and Lower Styria, a hilly area in the southeast.
Upper Styria is primarily an industrial region. Its rich natural resources include iron ore at Erzberg and Radmer; magnesite at Breitenau, Veitsch, and Trieben; brown coal; graphite; and salt. Considerable electric power is produced at fossil-fuel-fired steam power plants and by hydroelectric power stations. Ferrous metallurgy is represented by the production of pig iron, steel, and rolled steel products in Leoben-Donawitz and steel and rolled steel products in such cities as Kapfenberg, Kindberg, and Miirzzuschlag. The wood-products enterprises of various cities, notably Niklasdorf and Pols, produce for the entire country. Upper Styria also has light industry and enterprises of the machine-building, chemical, and food-processing industries. Agriculture is represented by dairy farming, swine raising, and the cultivation of rye and barley, maize, and potatoes.
Lower Styria is an important agricultural region. In the Graz “bay” livestock are raised for meat and dairy products, and grain crops are grown; the area also has orchards and vineyards. Industry includes machine building in Graz, Weiz, and Andritz, and there are enterprises of the wood-products and the pulp and paper industries in Gratkorn and Gratwein. Lower Styria has a printing industry, and footwear is manufactured in Graz.
A. I. MUKHIN