Tamsweg is a market town

Market town

Market town or market right is a legal term, originating in the medieval period, for a European settlement that has the right to host markets, distinguishing it from a village and city...

 in the Austria

Austria

Austria , officially the Republic of Austria , is a landlocked country of roughly 8.4 million people in Central Europe. It is bordered by the Czech Republic and Germany to the north, Slovakia and Hungary to the east, Slovenia and Italy to the south, and Switzerland and Liechtenstein to the...

n state of Salzburg

Salzburg (state)

Salzburg is a state or Land of Austria with an area of 7,156 km2, located adjacent to the German border. It is also known as Salzburgerland, to distinguish it from its capital city, also named Salzburg...

 near the border with Styria

Styria (state)

Styria is a state or Bundesland, located in the southeast of Austria. In area it is the second largest of the nine Austrian federated states, covering 16,401 km². It borders Slovenia as well as the other Austrian states of Upper Austria, Lower Austria, Salzburg, Burgenland, and Carinthia. ...

. It is the administrative centre of the eponymous district (Bezirk

Districts of Austria

Austria is divided into 84 political districts , and 15 Statutarstädte which form their own districts.-Function:The Austrian Bezirk is roughly equivalent to the Landkreis in Germany and County in the United States. The administrative office of a district, the Bezirkshauptmannschaft is headed by the...

) and the largest town of the Lungau

Lungau

The Bezirk Tamsweg is an administrative district in the federal state of Salzburg, Austria, and congruent with the Lungau region.-Geography:...

 region. The municipality consists of the Katastralgemeinden Haiden, Keusching, Lasaberg, Mörtelsdorf, Sauerfeld, Seetal, Tamsweg and Wölting.

Tamsweg is located in the Schladminger Tauern

Niedere Tauern

The Niedere Tauern or Low Tauern are a mountain range in central Austria, part of the Central Eastern Alps. They lie on the main chain of the Alps in in the states of Salzburger Land and Styria...

 mountain range of the Central Eastern Alps

Central Eastern Alps

The Central Eastern Alps comprise the main chain of the Eastern Alps with its highest peaks, located between the Northern Limestone Alps and the Southern Limestone Alps, from which they differ in geological composition....

 in the valley of the upper Mura River, the driest basin in Austria.

First mentioned as Taemswich in a document about 1160, the parish church, once a filial church

Filial church

A filial church, in the Roman Catholic Church, is a church to which is annexed the cure of souls, but which remains dependent on another church. The term comes from the Latin filialis, from filia, daughter....

 of Mariapfarr

Mariapfarr

Mariapfarr is a municipality in the district of Tamsweg in the state of Salzburg in Austria....

, was acquired by the Archbishop Eberhard II of Salzburg

Archbishopric of Salzburg

The Archbishopric of Salzburg was an ecclesiastical State of the Holy Roman Empire, its territory roughly congruent with the present-day Austrian state of Salzburg....

 in 1246. The Archbishops had the Saint Leonard pilgrimage church erected about 1433, which in 1490 was the site of violent fights between the armed forces of Emperor Frederick III

Frederick III, Holy Roman Emperor

Frederick the Peaceful KG was Duke of Austria as Frederick V from 1424, the successor of Albert II as German King as Frederick IV from 1440, and Holy Roman Emperor as Frederick III from 1452...

 and the troops of his rival Matthias Corvinus of Hungary

Matthias Corvinus of Hungary

Matthias Corvinus , also called the Just in folk tales, was King of Hungary and Croatia from 1458, at the age of 14 until his death...

.

Tamsweg is notable for its annual processions of a Samson

Samson

Samson, Shimshon ; Shamshoun or Sampson is the third to last of the Judges of the ancient Israelites mentioned in the Tanakh ....

 figure.

Politics

The municipal council consists of 25 seats and as of 2003 elections is composed of ÖVP

OVP

OVP is a three-letter abbreviation that may refer to:*The Office of the Vice President of the United States*The Office of the Vice President of the Philippines*OVP , a light sub-machine gun developed in Italy...

: 15, SPÖ

SPO

- Technology :SPO: Microsoft SharePoint Online, Microsoft Cloud Computing, Office 365. See Microsoft Online Services-Economics:* Secondary Public Offering, an equity capital market instrument...

: 8 and FPÖ

FPO

FPO may refer to:*Fleet Post Office, a "city" designation in military mail *Field post office, a term for military post offices in military mail systems *For position only, a designation for placeholder graphics...

: 2. The mayor of the town is Alois Lankmayer (ÖVP), vice-mayors are Klaus Repetschnigg (SPÖ) and Richard Rainer (ÖVP).

Transportation

Tamsweg lies at the junction of the Bundesstraße

Bundesstraße

Bundesstraße , abbreviated B, is the denotation for German and Austrian national highways.-Germany:...

n (federal highways) B95 Turracher Straße from Mauterndorf

Mauterndorf

Mauterndorf is a market town in the Tamsweg district in the Austrian state of Salzburg. The municipality also comprises the Katastralgemeinden Faningberg, Neuseß and Steindorf.-History:...

 to Predlitz-Turrach

Predlitz-Turrach

Predlitz-Turrach is a municipality in the district of Murau in Styria, Austria....

 in Styria and the B96 Murtal Straße from Sankt Michael im Lungau

Sankt Michael im Lungau

Sankt Michael im Lungau is a market town on the upper Mur River in the Tamsweg district in the Austrian state of Salzburg.-History:The parish church dedicated to Saint Michael was first mentioned in 1147...

 and the A 10 Tauern Autobahn

Tauern Autobahn

The Tauern Autobahn is an autobahn in Austria. It starts at the Salzburg junction with the Westautobahn , runs southwards, crosses the Tauern mountain range of the Central Eastern Alps and leads to the Süd Autobahn and Karawanken Autobahn at Villach in Carinthia...

 (European route E55

European route E55

European route E 55 is a E-route. It passes through the following cities:Helsingborg … Helsingør – Copenhagen – Køge – Vordingborg – Nykøbing Falster – Gedser … Rostock – Berlin – Lübbenau – Dresden – Teplice – Prague – Tábor – Linz – Salzburg – Villach – Tarvisio – Udine – Palmanova – Mestre...

) to Murau

Murau

Murau is the capital of the district of the same name in Styria, located along the Mur river. It has a population of 2,331.-History:The area was already settled in the Bronze Age and Roman time, for the first time document which mentioned Murau was in the year 1250.During the Second World War a...

.

It can also be reached by the terminal station of the Murtalbahn narrow gauge railway to the Südbahn

Austrian Southern Railway

The Austrian Southern Railway was an Austrian railway company established in 1841...

at Unzmarkt-Frauenburg

Unzmarkt-Frauenburg

Unzmarkt-Frauenburg is a municipality in the district of Judenburg in Styria, Austria....

.