Gurk, Carinthia

Gurk (Slovene: Krka) is an Austrian market town and former episcopal see in the District of Sankt Veit an der Glan, Carinthia.

Geography

The community of Gurk is surrounded by alpine meadows and vast high forests. It marks the center of the sparsely populated Gurk Valley. Downstream on the Gurk, lies the small town of Straßburg, from whose fortress the Prince-Bishops of Gurk reigned.

Subdivisions

Towns: Pisweg, Gruska, Gurk

Communities: Dörfl, Finsterdorf, Föbing, Gassarest, Glanz, Gruska, Gurk, Gwadnitz, Hundsdorf, Kreuzberg, Krön, Masternitzen, Niederdorf, Pisweg, Ranitz, Reichenhaus, Straßa, Sutsch, Zabersdorf, Zedl, Zedroß, Zeltschach

Neighboring municipalities

History

The name Gurk ("die Gurgelnde" or "the Gurgling one") comes from the river of the same name. The area was settled around 2000 years ago, but it only achieved any importance after Carinthia was incorporated by Bavaria.

After the death of her husband and her sons, Saint Hemma of Gurk founded a religious house on the market place of what is now Gurk. However, Gurk Abbey did not have a long existence: its site was used in 1072 for the cathedral and bishop's palace of the newly founded diocese of Gurk by the Archbishop of Salzburg, whose seat was in the northern part of Carinthia. Gurk was the bishop's seat until 1787; his residence is now located in Klagenfurt.

Town

A town is a human settlement larger than a village but smaller than a city. The size definition for what constitutes a "town" varies considerably in different parts of the world.

Origin and use

The word town shares an origin with the German word Stadt, the Dutch word tuin, and the Old Norse tun. The German word Zaun comes closest to the original meaning of the word: a fence of any material. An early borrowing from Celtic *dunom (cf. Old Irish dun, Welsh din "fortress, fortified place, camp," dinas "city;"

In English and Dutch, the meaning of the word took on the sense of the space which these fences enclosed. In England, a town was a small community that could not afford or was not allowed to build walls or other larger fortifications, and built a palisade or stockade instead. In the Netherlands, this space was a garden, more specifically those of the wealthy, which had a high fence or a wall around them (like the garden of palace Het Loo in Apeldoorn, which was the example for the privy garden of William and Mary at Hampton Court). In Old Norse tun means a (grassy) place between farmhouses, and is still used in a similar meaning in modern Norwegian.

Town (New Jersey)

A Town in the context of New Jersey local government refers to one of five types and one of eleven forms of municipal government. While Town is often used as a shorthand to refer to a Township, the two are not the same.

The Town Act of 1895 allowed any municipality or area with a population exceeding 5,000 to become a Town through a petition and referendum process. Under the 1895 Act, a newly incorporated town was divided into at least three wards, with two councilmen per ward serving staggered two-year terms, and one councilman at large, who also served a two-year term. The councilman at large served as chairman of the town council.

The Town Act of 1988 completely revised the Town form of government and applied to all towns incorporated under the Town Act of 1895 and to those incorporated by a special charter granted by the Legislature prior to 1875. Under the 1988 Act, the mayor is also the councilman at large, serving a term of two years, unless increased to three years by a petition and referendum process. The Council under the Town Act of 1988 consists of eight members serving staggered two-year terms with two elected from each of four wards. One councilman from each ward is up for election each year. Towns with different structures predating the 1988 Act may retain those features unless changed by a petition and referendum process.

Administrative divisions of Wisconsin

The administrative divisions of Wisconsin include counties, cities, villages and towns. In Wisconsin, all of these are units of general-purpose local government. There are also a number of special purpose districts formed to handle regional concerns, such as school districts.

Whether a municipality is a city, village or town is not strictly dependent on the community's population or area, but on the form of government selected by the residents and approved by the Wisconsin State Legislature. Cities and villages can overlap county boundaries, for example the city of Whitewater is located in Walworth and Jefferson counties.

County

The county is the primary political subdivision of Wisconsin. Every county has a county seat, often a populous or centrally located city or village, where the government offices for the county are located. Within each county are cities, villages and towns. As of 2015, Wisconsin had 72 counties.

A Board of Supervisors is the main legislative entity of the county. Supervisors are elected in nonpartisan elections for two-year terms (except in Milwaukee County where the Milwaukee County Board of Supervisors served four years). In May 2013, the Wisconsin Legislature passed a bill that will reduce the terms of office from four-years to two-years for the Milwaukee County Board of Supervisors. The type of executive official in each county varies: 11 counties have a County Executive elected in a nonpartisan election for a four-year term; 20 counties have appointed County Administrators; and 41 have appointed Administrative Coordinators. Other officials include sheriffs, district attorneys, clerks, treasurers, coroners, surveyors, registers of deeds, and clerks of circuit court; these officers are elected for four-year terms. In most counties, elected coroners have been replaced by appointed medical examiners. State law permits counties to appoint a registered land surveyor in place of electing a surveyor.

Gurk

Grk (pre-Roman for "the gurgling one") may mean:

See also: Krka (disambiguation)

Gurk (river)

The Gurk (Slovene: Krka) is a river in the Austrian state of Carinthia, a left tributary of the Drava. With a length of 157 km (98 mi), it is the longest river running entirely within Carinthia. The river basin covers about 27% of the state's territory.

The Gurk rises in the Nock Mountains (Gurktal Alps) range of the Central Eastern Alps, near the border with the Austrian state of Styria. Its sources are two small cirque lakes, the Gurksee and the Torersee near Albeck and the Turracher Höhe Pass, a protected area since 1981. The Gurksee has an elevation of 1,970 m (6,460 ft), an area of 4,000 m² (43,000 sq ft), and is 1.5 m (4.9 ft) deep; the Torersee lies 2,010 m (6,590 ft) above sea level, has an area of 3,500 m² (38,000 sq ft), and is 1.2 m (3.9 ft) deep. Since both lake are completely frozen in the Winter, they contain no fish.

It flows southwest to Ebene Reichenau and then turns eastwards running through Gnesau and the Gurktal valley to the market town of Gurk. Near Straßburg it again turns to the south, enters the Klagenfurt basin, and flows into the Drava west of Völkermarkt.