Lower Austria
federated state of Austria
Lower Austria (German: Niederösterreich pronounced [ˈniːdɐˌ(ʔ)øːstɐraɪç] , Bavarian: Niedaöstareich, abbreviated LA or NÖ) is one of the nine states of Austria, located in the northeastern corner of the country. Major cities are Amstetten, Krems an der Donau, Wiener Neustadt and Sankt Pölten, which has been the capital of Lower Austria since 1986, replacing Vienna, which became a separate state in 1921. With a land area of 19,186 km2 (7,408 sq mi) and a population of 1.7 million people, Lower Austria is the largest and second-most-populous state in Austria (after Vienna).
Geography
With a land area of 19,186 km2 (7,408 sq mi) situated east of Upper Austria, Lower Austria is the country's largest state. Lower Austria derives its name from its downriver location on the river Enns, which flows from the west to the east. Lower Austria has an international border, 414 km (257 mi) long, with the Czech Republic (South Bohemia and South Moravia) and Slovakia (Bratislava and Trnava Regions). The state has the second-longest external border of all Austrian states. It also borders the other Austrian states of Upper Austria, Styria and Burgenland as well as surrounding Vienna.
Lower Austria is divided into four regions, known as Viertel (quarters):
Mostviertel (above the Vienna Woods)
Industrieviertel (below the Vienna Woods)
Weinviertel (below the Manhartsberg)
Waldviertel (above the Manhartsberg)
These regions have different geographical structures. Whilst the Mostviertel is dominated by the foothills of the Limestone Alps with mountains up to 2,000 m (AA) (6,500 ft) high, most of the Waldviertel is a granite plateau.
Begin with the source’s own compact description: “Lower Austria” is federated state of Austria. The dossier treats that line as a proposition to test through Lower, Austria and federated, not as a finished interpretation.
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The phrase “federated state of Austria” supplies a clear boundary for inquiry. It also exposes the unanswered questions: who defined that boundary, when it became stable and which sources sit outside it.
The citation trail is more important than the brevity of the summary: it shows where individual claims can be examined in context. The source revision retrieved here is dated Sep 18, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q42497. VIAF identifies the subject as 147169281. The Library of Congress control number is n79079223. Authority coordinates are 48.333, 15.750. 4 of 4 selected statements include explicit references; 1 carry qualifiers and 0 use preferred rank. The first chronological checks are 1986 and 1921.
The absence of detail may reflect summary conventions rather than a lack of surviving documentation. The lead is largely declarative, so disagreement and counter-evidence require a deliberate search beyond the opening account. Authority statements aid reconciliation but still require their own references, qualifiers and ranks to be checked.
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This entry incorporates text from “Lower Austria” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.