Present-day eastern Austria was occupied during the 10th century by the Hungarians and not won back again until 971.

Around that time, over a 1000 years ago, a small fortress village grew up around the Baden fortress, complete with its own wall and two gates (one at the Batzenhäusel across Pfarrgasse, the other at the parsonage, Pfarrhof).

Merchants and innkeepers soon established businesses in the protective shadow of this fortress town at the street fork formed by Wassergasse and Frauengasse. This is why the main square in Baden is triangular in shape.

The fortress village and the market village gradually grew together, forming the later city center, approximately the area covered by today's pedestrian precinct.
Through the Helena Valley, there is convenient access to the Danube Valley, the heart of Lower Austria (still used today as a feeder road to the autobahn).

That is why the roads around Baden were protected by eight fortresses, each with one or two villages attached to it. The knights lived from the taxes and duties collected from their villagers and in exchange protected their subjects to the best of their ability. By the way, robber barons were as rare then as robbers are now.

The fortresses of Baden were as follows: Scharfeneck, Rauheneck, Rauhenstein, Weikersdorf, Baden, Leesdorf, Rohr and the smallest fortress in Baden, so small it did not even have a name but was referred to merely as "the Tower" (today the Sauerhof).

Once gunpowder was invented and the fortress walls and fortifications could be breached by canons and guns, knighthood as an institution became superfluous. Many of the fortresses were deserted and are in ruins today or have disappeared altogether. Others were converted into castles that remain in operation today.