Decline of Town and Village Centres? Delineation and Analysis of Historic Centres in Upper Austria Based on the Franciscan Cadastre

This article analyses the condition and development of historic town and village centres in Upper Austria and closes a research gap in the empirical recording of these central settlement areas. Based on a semi-automated delimitation using the Franciscan cadastre (‘Fran-ziszeischer Kataster’) (1817–1861) and statistical data from 2001 and 2018, a methodologically robust procedure was developed that makes historical centres morphologically and functionally comparable. The results show an area of tension between structural redensification and social depopulation: despite rising building and housing numbers, most town and village centres recorded declining populations, increasing vacancy rates and the loss of their commercial functions. The shift towards a (semi-)public service sector and the erosion of architectural heritage are particularly characteristic of this development in peripheral regions. A cluster analysis identifies five types of historic town and village centres with widely diverging development paths – from dynamic centres of densification to structurally endangered centres. The study illustrates that historic town and village centres are neither static relics nor self-sustaining resilient spaces. Their future viability depends on integrated, data-based and type-specific strategies that take revitalisation, mobility and building culture into account in equal measure.