Raxendorf

History: "Village at the stony grounds".... has been first documentary mentioned in the 11th century (as property of the Niederaltaich cloister in Bavaria) under the name "Raehsendorf". Wellknown and unique was the "Free court" 1459 of Raxendorf. (= Independance in personal rights and many more in jurisdiction) Obligation "only" towards the respective owners (such as county Weitenegg and later Pöggstall). 60 free farmers of Raxendorf were allowed of free hunting (water and land), as far as their estates reached. Further they were free of paying customs at water and land in Austria.

The following folk tale relates to the origin of the Raxendorfer federal court:"The duke in the muck freight"
The duke named Friedrich the combative was on the run from the so called Kuenringern, who had opposed against the duke.On his run he passed Aggsbach and Jauerling.In Afterbach he went to the house of Mr.Wagner, where the duke told Mrs.Wagner who he was.The woman immediately hid him in a trough, which she filled up with oat.Soon the pursuers came to Afterbach and went through all houses, but they couldn´t find him anywhere, not even in the house of Mr. Wagner.After a fruitless search they went back to where they came from.Although the duke wasn´t detected, Mrs Wagner thought it would be better for him to hide on a carriage which is then filled with dung. Although the duke wasn´t very fond of this idea he did what the woman told him.Then Mrs.Wagner hid him in a cave, but after a while the population found out about her secret and visited the duke in the cave of the Rothenstein woods, to bring him something to eat and drink.Out of his thankfulness the duke distributed those many special rights to the Raxendorfer which made it become a "free" court.

In the chronicle of Raxendorf an old man reports that he himself has seen the cave in th Rothenstein woods.He reports the dimensions as follows: 7 shoe long, 3 1/2 shoe wide and 3 1/2 shoe high.The inside of the cave was equipped with a seat, made of stone.On the wall there were two horseshoes and a headgear. He calls this wall,"emperor wall".The datas have been taken, to a part, out of the Bezirkskunde Melk(part 2).The folk tales are taken word by word from the book "Sagen aus dem Südlichen Waldviertel" written by Fritz Rötzer, Franz Würml and Franz Traunfellner (illustrations)appeared in 1952..