From top down, left to right: Rathausplatz with Franciscan Church and Monastery,Sankt Pölten Cathedral, view of the city, City Hall, Lower Austrian Government Quarter
Sankt Pölten (German pronunciation:[zaŋktˈpœltn̩]ⓘ;Central Bavarian:St. Pödn), mostly abbreviated to the official nameSt. Pölten,[3] is the capital and largest city of theState ofLower Austria in northeast Austria, with 59,767 inhabitants as of 1 January 2025. St. Pölten is a city with its own statute (orStatutarstadt) and therefore it is both a municipality and a district in theMostviertel. Due to its cultural status, it has recently enjoyed an increase of visitors passing through Sankt Pölten on their way to Vienna.
The city lies on theTraisen river and is located north of the Alps and south of theWachau. It is part of theMostviertel, the southwest region of Lower Austria.
St Pölten is divided into the following subdistricts: Altmannsdorf, Dörfl at Ochsenburg, Eggendorf, Ganzendorf, Hafing, Harland, Hart, Kreisberg, Matzersdorf, Mühlgang, Nadelbach, Oberradlberg, Oberwagram, Oberzwischenbrunn, Ochsenburg, Pengersdorf, Pottenbrunn, Pummersdorf, Ragelsdorf, Ratzersdorf at the Traisen, Reitzersdorf, Schwadorf, Spratzern, St Georgen on the Steinfelde, St Pölten, Stattersdorf, Steinfeld, Teufelhof, Unterradlberg, Unterwagram, Unterzwischenbrunn, Viehofen, Völtendorf, Waitzendorf, Wasserburg, Weitern, Wetzersdorf, Windpassing, Witzendorf, Wolfenberg, Wörth and Zwerndorf.
The city's main railway station,St. Pölten Hauptbahnhof, is located directly on theWest railway of theÖBB and is also the terminus of the Leobersdorfer Railway, theMariazellerbahn, the regional railway to Tulln and the regional railway toKrems. It is at the intersection of theWestern Motorway A1 and the Kremser Speedway S33, and is traversed by the Vienna Road B1. St Pölten is a junction of theWieselbus bus lines, which provides radial connections between the capital and the different regions of Lower Austria.
Between 1911 and 1976, atramline operated in St Pölten. Today, a network of eleven bus lines operates at regular intervals within the city. Every summer, a free tourist train in the city centre connects the ancient parts of the city with the government district.
The oldest part of the city is built on the site of the ancientRoman city ofAelium Cetium that existed between the 2nd and the 4th century AD. ABenedictine monastery was founded in 791;[7] in the year 799, it was calledTreisma. St Pölten did not become a town until 1050, and officially became a city in 1169. Until 1494, St Pölten was part of thediocese of Passau, and then became the property of the state. In 1081 it hosted theAugustinianChorherren, and in 1784 theirKollegiatsstift closed. Since 1785, this building has hosted the cathedral of St Pölten. The city replacedVienna as the capital of Lower Austria with a resolution by the Lower Austrian parliament on 10 July 1986. The Lower Austrian government has been hosted in St Pölten since 1997.
The City's senate (Stadtsenat) consists of 13 members. It is chaired by the mayor. The other members—two vice-mayors and eleven town councillors—are appointed by the municipal council, with party affiliations according to the election results.[10]
Thearms'blazon is silver and azure; on the right a fess gules, on the left awolf rampant silver langued gules and armed Or.
The colours of the city are red and yellow. The seal of the city contains its coat of arms surrounded by the textLandeshauptstadt St. Pölten. The administration's seal of the magistrate also contains the city's coat of arms with the textMagistrat der Stadt St. Pölten.
As of 15 May 2001, 40,041 people worked in 2,711 companies in the city. 23 of those companies are large-scale enterprises with more than 200 employees each.
Several media companies are based in St Pölten. These are "@cetera", a literary-cultural magazine; "City-Flyer", an online magazine describing the cultural offerings of the city, which is published on paper monthly; "Campus Radio", a radio station from the University of Applied Sciences; "HiT FM", a radio station broadcasting in Lower Austria; "LetHereBeRock", an online youth magazine about the alternative rock scene;NÖN, a Lower Austrian newspaper; theAustrian Broadcasting Corporation for Lower Austria; and the local television channel "P3tv".
The largest companies based in St Pölten are the furniture producer Leiner, the paper manufacturer Salzer, and the family owned engineering conglomerateVoith.
The nearest airport isVienna Airport, which is located 87 km (54 mi) southeast of St Pölten. It can easily be accessed by train operated byRailjet and road.
Public higher educational facility for professions in economics and school for social professions
Public higher technical educational facility and laboratory (fields: EDP and organisation, electronics, electrical engineering, machine engineering, economic engineering) withuniversity of applied sciences for machine construction
New Design University (interior architecture and graphics design)
Swimming is available at Aquacity (indoorswimming pool), the St. Pölten outdoor swimming pool and Ratzersdorf Lake (a bathing pond where anudist beach,beach volleyball, andminiature golf are available). For fitness training there is theCity-Treff - Pueblo, theLifeline, theReebok and theSeepark. In addition, the city has:
Every year in the third week of May anATP 250 tournament takes place in St Pölten. There are multiple local tennis stadiums, including the Arena im Aufeld, the tennis centre Allround, the tennis courts by the local ice sport association 1872, the courts in St. Georgen, the courts at the Ratzersdorfer Pond, the courts in the Lower Austrian state sports school and the courts of the leisure park Megafun.
