The Free City of Rust

The other day I visited the small town of Rust, located in the southern part of Burgenland (a province of Austria). Most of the houses were built in the 16th and 17th centuries, though the Fishermen's Church has been known since the 11th century. It was around that church that the town took shape and was built up.

In all, fewer than 2,000 people live in Rust. About the same number lived here five hundred years ago.

So little has changed in the town since then. The same nature, the same climate, the same hills around the town, even the houses the residents live in have remained as they were, medieval. Perhaps the residents' clothing has changed, and now they get around not on horses but in cars.

Rust is one of those little towns over which time has no power.

And I did not misspeak in calling it a town. Moreover, its full name runs: the Free Town of Rust.

It received this title in the distant year 1681, when its inhabitants did not wish to live in the Kingdom of Hungary. They wrote a letter to the emperor (who was also the Hungarian king) asking to be independent of Hungary, enclosing 60,000 gulden and 500 buckets of wine (their entire annual stock). The touched emperor of the Holy Roman Empire issued the townspeople a charter recognising them as free.

About 200 years later Rust would become part of Austria-Hungary.

Interestingly, in Austria a settlement counts as a town if it has at least 20,000 inhabitants. But no one intends to revoke the charter that Rust received 350 years ago. Such are the laws.

The town has one interesting feature that sets it apart from other Austrian towns. A colony of storks lives here. Rust is even called the "Town of Storks". They lived here five hundred years ago, and six hundred. Their huge, wide nests sit on nearly every second chimney in the town.

To be continued

The Free Town of Rust is, of course, small, but quite a few tourists come here. Some come simply because they like the local wine very much, and it really is magnificent! Especially the white and the rosé.

The numerous restaurants are always packed, but a free spot can be found.

The Free Town of Rust is a land of winemakers, fishermen (right next door lies Europe's largest "steppe" lake) and storks.

Particularly lovely is the Town Hall Square, with its medieval cobblestones, surrounded by 15th-century houses, each with stork nests on top. By the way, storks call very loudly, and their exchanges sound like rattles.

The Fishermen's Church is very ancient, as I wrote, 11th century. In the 14th and 15th centuries it was extended. And in the 18th century elements of the Baroque were added to its architecture.

Inside the church there are medieval frescoes.

The church also has an old organ, and lengthy concerts are held weekly (a ticket costs around 10 euros). They say you will not hear such a sound in any church in Europe.

On the square I noticed a deep early-medieval well, lined with ancient stone bearing the coat of arms of the Holy Roman Empire.

I suspect it was a "dungeon" for debtors and petty criminals.

Such wells are found everywhere in the old towns of Austria. In Italy, for example, "pillories" were popular at that time. I have been to the small town of Eguisheim (Alsace, France), famous for its storks. So I can say that the storks live there on only one street, whereas here they are all over the town.

But what I liked especially in Eguisheim (since we have touched on that French little town) were the inhabited ancient Roman houses, more than 2,000 years old, in which people still live.

We left the town and headed for a small park.

What surprised me most was how the storks grazed together with the rams, without bothering each other in the least.

I dropped in on the Free Town of Rust. Or, put another way, the town of storks. As always, there are plenty of birds. It is their mating season now, and I became an unintentional witness to the males "courting" the females. Of course, in this pre-summer time both the town itself and the storks look different. Festive, somehow...

Right after the lockdown, a wine tasting will be held in the town. In all the little restaurants and taverns at once, naturally. The locals are pining for rosé, the chief pride of Burgenland, and for a good snack.

The Free Town of Rust is small. Only a few thousand inhabitants. But what inhabitants! Incredible patriots of their town. The townspeople leave Rust only out of extreme necessity. Flats and houses, as a rule, belong to one family and pass by inheritance to the next generations. So the buildings are several hundred years old. And each of them has its own incredible history.

And the townspeople do not wish to leave for a simple reason: they are used to the storks. To their loud exchanges, which sound like a rattle.

So the fates of the townspeople and the storks are very closely intertwined.