Steiermark

State (pop., 2001: 1,183,303), southeastern Austria. Inhabited since the Stone Age, the region came under Roman rule as part of the Celtic kingdom of Noricum. It was ruled by the Bavarians in the 8th century, belonged to the duchy of Carinthia after 976, and was made a frontier territory of the Frankish empire in the 11th century. The area became a duchy in 1180 and a Habsburg crown land in 1282. After World War I, 2,329 sq mi (6,032 sq km) of southern Steiermark were ceded to Yugoslavia. Steiermark has been a state of Austria since that time, except for the years 1938–45, when most of it formed a Reichsgau (party district) under the Anschluss (incorporation into Germany). Steiermark has an area of 6,327 sq mi (16,387 sq km), and its capital is Graz.