Ybbs looks back on a long past. After the Celts, the Romans established a settlement here (under Emperor Vespasian 69-79 AD).
Approximately where the parish church stands today, a fortification tower was built in 370 AD to secure the Danube lime (Roman border wall).
Around the year 900, the bridge and the associated trade route led to the creation of a transhipment centre on the Danube in the form of a Carolingian castle settlement called "Eparesburg".
After the battle on the Lechfeld on the Laurentius day (August 10th) 955, this castle was extended and provided with a chapel in honour of St. Laurentius*). Even today St. Lawrence is still venerated in the parish church. The altarpiece by Paul Troger is dedicated to him.
A small town gradually formed around this castle. In the 14th century a moat and a curtain wall were built. At today's Linzertor the castle was built.
In the 13th century Eparesburg became Ypsburg, an important trading centre for cloth, ironmongery, salt and wine. Since 1239 the city is called only Yps, later Ybbs.
Ybbs came into the possession of the Babenbergs and was from now on the property of the sovereign. In 1276 Ybbs was the first Lower Austrian town to open its gates to the Habsburg Rudolf I. Subsequently, the new Habsburg princes gradually granted Ybbs a number of privileges. In 1317, Frederick I (the Fair) finally sealed the town's rights by conferring the blood court, the right to condemn death by sword or gallows.
Note: Otto the Great swore before the famous Battle of the Lechfeld - in the presence of the holy lance - to elevate the town of Merseburg to the bishop's see and also to dedicate it to the saint of the day, St. Laurentius. Also there you can still find today a Laurentius church with a fantastic organ.
The old town is beautifully renovated and, if you are on the Danube cycle path, is best visited by bicycle. Some medieval town fortifications are still preserved.
The path from the Bürgerspitalplatz to the main square leads over a bridge over the defensive ditch. There a Nepomuk statue welcomes us.
On the church square an outdoor fresco caught our attention. It's a Mariahilf painting.
In the gothic (baroquised) Laurentius church a painting 'St. Judas Thaddeus' by Schmidt from Krems is hanging.
On the right side altar there is this picture of the Virgin.
We have already got to know it in Vienna in St. Stephen's Cathedral as "Mary in the Sun".
Alley in Ybbs
Danube cycle route
Persenbeug
Ybbs - Neustadtl
