English Styria
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 193845, 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 .