Poggersdorf (Slovenian: Pokrče in dialect Poča ves) is a municipality, since 2013 a so-called Market Municipality (German: Marktgemeinde) in the district of Klagenfurt-Land in the Austrian federal state of Carinthia.
Geography
Geographic Situation
Poggersdorf (in Slovenian Pokrče) lies in the center-east of the Klagenfurt plain (German: Klagenfurter Feld, in Slovenian: Celovško polje), about 10 km east of the regional capital city of Klagenfurt (in Slovenian Celovec). On the north and west, the Gurk (Krka) forms the municipal boundary, and on the south between Gurker Brücke/Muta and Kreuth/Rute, the road to Pack forms the boundary. In 1920, on the occasion of the referendum on the affiliation of southern parts of Carinthia either to Austria or to the newly found State of later Yugoslavia, the river Gurk/Krka represented the boundary of the voting zones A and B (commemoration plaques are set on two bridges), as the zone A, comprising Poggersdorf (Pokrče), was considered being largely Slovenian.
Neighbouring Municipalities
Structure of the Municipality
The Municipality is composed by four cadastral land register units: Leibsdorf (Ličja vas), Linsenberg (Lečja gora), Pubersdorf (Pobreže) and St. Michael ob der Gurk (Slovenji Šmihel). The Municipality encloses also 24 localities and villages (with their respective Slovenian name that is autochthonous in the region) with, in parentheses, the number of inhabitants on 31. October 2011):
Ameisbichl / Svamene Gorice (13) Annamischl / Mišlje (13) Eibelhof / Ovčjak (1) Eiersdorf / Virnja vas (107) Erlach / Olše (44) Goritschach / Goriče (17) Haidach / Vresje (27) Kreuth / Rute (21) Kreuzergegend-Ost / Pri Krajcarju (51) Kreuzergegend-West / Pri Krajcarju (53) Krobathen / Hrovače (8) Lanzendorf / Vanca vas (121) Leibsdorf / Ličja vas (611) Linsenberg / Lečja Gora (41) Pischeldorf / Škofji Dvor (11) Poggersdorf / Pokrče (770) Pubersdorf / Pobreže (536) Rain / Breg (131) Raunachmoos / Blato (0) Sankt Johann / Čajnža vas (40) Sankt Michael ob der Gurk / Slovenji Šmihel (89) Ströglach / Stregle (43) Wabelsdorf / Vabnja vas (323) Wirtschach / Zvirče (11)
History
The eastern part of the Klagenfurt Plain (Klagenfurter Feld / Celovško polje) belonged during history to different centers of power. Until an advanced period of Middle Ages, the ancient Carantanian social group of Slavs respectively Slovenians called the “Edlinger” (in Slovenian “kosezi “) had specific social privileges. It was situated between feudality and farmers and had its own autonomous justice. It is in this tradition that developed for example the lower aristocratic domains of Eibelhof (Ovčjak) or Wutschein (Bučinja vas) which gave their names to the respective cadastral land register units.
The territory of the municipality of Poggersdorf/Pokrče belonged to the higher court of Maria Saal (Gospa Sveta). In the course of the creation of the modern political municipalities in 1850, the municipality of “Windisch St. Michael” (Slovenji Šmihel) was created. For ethnopolitical reasons – the municipality and the whole region were considered as being Slovenian – the municipality was renamed in 1896 and its administrative center was transferred to the village of Poggersdorf/Pokrče that was also nearer to the main regional road. In the course of the administrative reform of 1973, a part of the former municipality of Hörtendorf (Trdnja vas) was attached to it.
In the last population census of the Austro-Hungarian Empire in 1910, about 59% of the population of the municipality of Pokrče (Poggersdorf) declared Slovenian being their language of every day public use, which leads to the conclusion that even a higher part had or considered Slovenian being its mother tongue.
During centuries, the municipality was characterized by agriculture and it is only in the last decades that the phenomenon of commuters to the regional capital city became more and more important. In 2013, the municipality was given the specific status of a “Market Municipality” (German: “Marktgemeinde”).
Population
According to the census of 2001, the population of Poggersdorf is 2.850, 97,8 % have the Austrian nationality and 87,5 % are Catholics, 2,9 % Protestants, 0,7 % Muslims and 6,2 % without religious confession. The Jehovah's Witnesses have a worship center in Leibsdorf (Ličja vas).
The parish church of Poggersdorf ( Pokrče ) as well as its filial churches of Wutschein (Bučinja vas), Wabelsdorf (Vabnja vas) and Eiersdorf (Virnja vas) are formally bilingual (German / Slovenian).