Hargelsberg

Hargelsberg lies thirty-two metres above the plain of the Danube, thirty kilometres north-west of Linz. The land rises gently from the river’s floodplain to low hills in the south. Most of the 18 square kilometres is open field, with only small woods along the streams. Four named villages sit within the municipality: Hargelsberg itself, Penking, Sieding and Thann. Other hamlets—Angersberg, Firsching, Franzberg—are scattered among the fields and orchards. The first written mention of the place comes in the twelfth century, when it belonged to the Austrian Duchy. Before that, the area had been under Bavarian rule since the seventh century. In the late fifteenth century it was drawn into the Archduchy of Austria Above the Enns. During the Napoleonic Wars French troops passed through the region. After the First World War it became part of Upper Austria, and after the Anschluss it was administered from Linz before returning to Upper Austria in 1945. Hargelsberg is known among collectors for the emergency money it issued in 1920. Every village and hamlet produced its own limited series of notes, and hundreds of different designs survive. The fields around the villages are worked for grain and orchards, and the quiet roads are lined with farmsteads and wayside shrines.