Dechantskirchen is a municipality in the district of Hartberg-Fürstenfeld in Styria, Austria. At 1. January 2015 it was expanded by a part (Katastralgemeinde Schlag) of the to this date existing immediate neighbor municipality Schlag bei Thalberg within the scope of the Gemeindestrukturreform.[3]
Geographie
Geographical position
Dechantskirchen is placed in the northeast of the district Hartberg-Fürstenfeld and also of Styria. The municipality resides approximately 15 km north of the district capital Hartberg. The highest place of the municipality territory is the Hochkogel (1.314 m), the moust southern one thousand mountain of the Wechsel.
The municipality is composed of three Katastralgemeinden Dechantskirchen, Hohenau, Kroisbach und Schlag respectively of eight small towns (population 1. January 2019[4]):
Bergen (106) mit der Rotte Drei Häuser
Burgfeld (125) mit Höttling
Dechantskirchen (665)
Hohenau am Wechsel (100) mit der Streusiedlung Jockl im Hof
Kroisbach (391) mit Killer
Limbach (25)
Schlag bei Thalberg (390) mit Lehen und Thalberg-Siedlung
Stögersbach (240)
Annexations
At 1. January 1967 the municipality Hohenau am Wechsel was incorporated to Dechantskirchen.
History
Because of many archeological evidences,[citation needed] there is reason to expect that human settlement existed already in prehistoric time, like 3000 to 1500 before Christ, at the arey of Dechanstkirchen.