page_title: Völkermarkt
section_title: History
hierarchical_section_title: Völkermarkt / History
context_page_description: Völkermarkt is a town of about 11,000 inhabitants in the Austrian state of Carinthia, the administrative capital of Völkermarkt District. It is located within the Drava valley east of the Carinthian capital Klagenfurt, north of the Karawanken mountain range.
context_section_description: The area, once part of the ancient Noricum province, in the 7th century was resettled by Slavic tribes, who lived within the Principality of Carantania. The migration concentrated around the former Roman settlement of Juenna (near present-day Globasnitz in an area later called Podjuna in Slovene or Jauntal in German. Up to today, significant parts of the population refer to themselves as Carinthian Slovenes. 
  The descendants of Count Siegfried I of Sponheim, who about 1035 had come to the Duchy of Carinthia as a follower of Emperor Conrad II, had a trading post erected at the site about 1090, where a church was built soon afterwards at the behest of the archbishop of Salzburg. In 1217 Duke Bernhard von Spanheim gave orders to build a bridge across the Drava River and had the settlement rebuilt in 1231. Völkermarkt was granted town privileges in the 13th century already and developed quickly as an important centre for trade in iron from the surrounding ore mines.
  In the Carinthian Plebiscite of 1920, a majority of the population voted for adhesion to the Republic of Austria. On 18 September 1979, the Yugoslav Department of State Security firebombed the Völkermarkt town hall, severely injuring three men, including two of the agents, and causing heavy damages.
caption: Völkermarkt, painting by Markus Pernhart (1824–1871)
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