Bregenz is located on a plateau falling in a series of terraces to the lake at the foot ofPfänder mountain. It is a junction of the arterial roads from theRhine valley to theGerman Alpine foothills, with cruise ship services on Lake Constance.
It is famous for the annual summer music festivalBregenzer Festspiele, as well as the dance festivalBregenzer Spring.
Bregenz, Chalcography by Caspar Merian, about 1650
The first settlements date from 1500 BC. TheBrigantii are mentioned by Strabo as a Celtic sub-tribe in this region of the Alps.[3] In the 5th century BC, theCelts settled atBrigantion, which became one of their most heavily fortified locations. After a series of battles in 15 BC, the Romans conquered Brigantion and the city became a Roman camp. It was conferred the status of a municipality (Brigantium) around 50 AD. Brigantium was the seat of the Roman admiralty forLake Constance and included atheatre. In 259/60 Brigantium was destroyed by theAlemanni, Germanic peoples who settled in the area in around 450.
From 610 to 612Saint Columbanus andSaint Gall worked as missionaries in Bregenz. From 917 onwards the castle served as a residence of the Udalrichinger (ruling dynasty of Vorarlberg), who called themselves Counts ofBregenz. The house died out around 1150. The son of the first Ulrich wasSaint Gebhard, born in 947. He became theBishop of Konstanz. In around 1170 Hugo of Tübingen (Montfort) founded a town settlement (first documented in 1249), enlarged it in the 13th and 14th centuries and from 1650 to 1652.[4]
The city was sold in 1451, and again in 1523, to theHabsburgs and continued under Austrian rule, with a brief occupation by Swedish forces underCarl Gustaf Wrangel during the30 Years' War, until the 19th century. Bregenz was underBavarian rule from 1805 to 1814. From 1842 to 1850, the harbour onLake Constance was built, then enlarged in 1883 and from 1889 to 1891, and Austrian ship service was inaugurated in 1884. Railway services have existed since 1872, and since 1884 across theArlberg massif.
Since 1726, Bregenz has been the main seat of Austrian administration inVorarlberg (Obervogtei, in 1786Kreisamt, since 1861 seat of the Landtag, since 1918 seat of theLandeshauptmann). Rieden-Vorkloster and Fluh were incorporated into Bregenz in 1919 and 1946, respectively. The town was bombed by the Allies in 1945, and 72 houses were destroyed.
The Pfänder, a panoramic point of Bregenz.The Martinsturm, built in 1601.Congress and Culture Center.Sacred Heart Church.Ancient city wall, upper town.Kunsthaus BregenzVorarlberg museum
Martinsturm (Martin's Tower). Originally built by the Romans, it has a chapel with frescoes dating from 1362. Between 1599 and 1601 an additional storey was added. It has the largest bulb-shaped Baroque steeple in Central Europe, and houses the Museum of Military History.
Gothic parish church of St Gall: itsRomanesque foundations date from before 1380, but it was rebuilt around 1480. Around 1737 it was converted to a Baroque style.
Landhaus (built from 1973 to 1982 by W. Holzbauer)
Former Kornhausmarkt (built 1838 to 1940, altered 1951 to 1955); it now houses a theatre.
Protestant church of the Sacred Cross (1862–1864)
Church of St Kolumban (1962–1966)
Kunsthaus Bregenz (1991–1997) (modern art museum)
Tourismushaus (tourist centre) (1994–1998).
Sights in the district of Vorkloster include the Maria Hilf parish church (1925–1931, by C. Holzmeister, interior from 1980) and the Cistercian monastery ofMehrerau.
On the Gebhardsberg rock are remains of the fortress of Hohenbregenz (destroyed by the Swedes in 1647).
Bregenz is home to four Gymnasium secondary schools, a commercial college (HAK), a technical college (HTL), upper secondary business schools (Höhere Lehranstalt für wirtschaftliche Berufe), three Berufsschulen (vocational schools), crafts colleges, the Academy of Social Sciences, and a nursing school. Others include: an adult education centre, school boarding houses, state archives, a state library, a state museum,Kunsthaus Bregenz (modern arts centre), Künstlerhaus (art centre),Thurn und Taxis Palace, five monasteries, Heimatwerk (autonomous institution fostering the manufacturing of traditional craft products), and various newspapers.
The municipal assembly (Gemeindevertretung) consists of 36 members. Following the2025 Vorarlberg local elections, it is made up of the following parties:[6]
Bregenz is the seat of the Vorarlberg State Assembly (Landtag), and of most of the provincial authorities/institutions of Vorarlberg (e.g. school superintendent, police headquarters, department of human resources development (AMS), Office for Environmental Protection, Chamber of Labour, Economics Chamber, Chamber of Agriculture, Chamber of Pharmacists, military regional headquarters, military garrison, one of the main hospitals of the province (Landeskrankenhaus), as well as a sanatorium, farmers' health and social insurance office, VLV (Mutual Fire Insurance Institute).
Aconsulate-general of Turkey,[8] andhonorary consulates of Belarus, France, Germany, Hungary, Norway, and Switzerland are located in Bregenz. Honorary consulates of Finland and the United Kingdom are located in nearbyLauterach, and an honorary consulate of Brazil in nearbyHard.[9]
The economy is mainly dominated by small businesses in the services, trade and industry sectors: these include the textile industry (Wolford AG), fittings manufacturer Julius Blum GmbH, glass processing and machine construction.
Bi-seasonal tourism is important; a major attraction is the Bregenz Festival (since 1946, floating stage since 1949, modernised in 1979, Festival and Congress Hall in 1980), winter sports on the Pfänder mountain.
The annual summer music festivalBregenzer Festspiele is world-famous, taking place in July and August each year on and around a stage onLake Constance. This festival attracts more than 150,000 people every year to Bregenz (2011: 166,453, 2016: 159,172) and has a budget of around EUR 20 million.[10] The program changes every two years.
In addition to the performances on the lake stage, orchestral concerts and operas also take place in the adjacent festival theatre. There is also a children's and youth program during and before the beginning of the festival.
The lake stage (Seebühne) is the largest open-air lake stage theatre in the world, with an audience capacity of around 7,000.[11]
Since 2014, theBregenz Jazz Festival has been held every year in June at the Kornmarktplatz. It is the successor of theNew Orleans Festival, which took place from 1999 to 2013, during the early summer, in the inner city of Bregenz, and which was no longer supported by the initiator Markus Linder. In addition to the change of name, there was also a musical genre change from blues to jazz. The location and the timing stayed roughly the same.[12]
Since 1987,Bregenzer Spring, a dance festival, has been held every year between March and June in the Festival Hall of Bregenz (Festspielhaus).[13] Dance ensembles from all over the world perform their new productions, along with Austrian premieres.[14] With a budget of around EUR 500,000 and up to 10,000 visitors, Bregenzer Spring is one of the most important dance festivals in Austria.[15]
There are three railway stations within the municipality.Bregenz railway station is an intermediate stop on theVorarlberg railway line (Vorarlbergbahn), which traverses Vorarlberg in a north-south direction. The harbour of Bregenz is adjacent toBregenz Hafen railway station, which is situated on the same railway line. A third station,Bregenz Riedenburg is situated further south on the Vorarlberg line. Bregenz station is called at by the S1 and S3 regional train services ofVorarlberg S-Bahn,S7 service ofSt. Gallen S-Bahn,REX 1 and long-distanceEuroCity andRailjet trains, while the other two stations are only served by regional trains (S1, S3, REX 1). The regional train services are also part ofBodensee S-Bahn.
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