You have now clicked on the "Austria" label and moved to the so-called Austrian Circle of the Holy Roman Empire, which was first established in 1512. This circle had considerable territorial overlap with present-day Austria but also included regions that do not belong to the modern state.

The Austrian Circle comprised the Habsburg hereditary lands of Lower and Upper Austria, Styria, Carinthia, Carniola, Gorizia, and Tyrol, as well as the Habsburg exclaves of Further Austria and Alsace (geographically located within the Swabian and Upper Rhenish circles). It also included the bishoprics of Brixen, Trent, Gurk, and Chur. Moreover, the Teutonic Order (due to its Austrian bailiwicks) also belonged to the circle, as well as the County of Tarasp (held by the Prince of Dietrichstein). In 1803, the principalities of Salzburg and Berchtesgaden were added to the Austrian Circle. However, Bohemia, Moravia, and Silesia were not part of this circle although they were also under Habsburgian control. This shows that the composition of imperial circles only partly followed a dynastic logic and that they represented administrative units in their own right. This also implied that, despite its proximity to the imperial court in Vienna, the Austrian Circle was not automatically the most powerful. It was, however, the most affected and engaged in several crises faced by the Holy Roman Empire. Due to its geographic location in the east, for instance, the Austrian Circle played a key role in the Holy Roman Empire's defence against the Ottoman Empire.

To learn more about Austria’s position in the Holy Roman Empire, you may wish to consult the following German-language exhibition catalogue, which is freely available online: