Railway line - Pinkafeld to Szombathely

An envelope from my dear friend in Austria - re enacting a history 130 years later ! 

Szombathely is the oldest recorded city in Hungary. It was founded by the Romans in 45 AD under the name of Colonia Claudia Savariensum (Claudius' Colony of Savarians), and it was the capital of the Pannonia Superior province of the Roman Empire. 

Pinkafeld is a city in Burgenland in Austria and the second largest settlement (after Oberwart) in the district Oberwart. The federal state of Burgenland is the smallest of Austria’s nine states . Until 1921 the area was part of Hungary, but was transferred to Austria as a result of WWI ( after some fighting and a plebescite in Sopron).

 

In hungarian times it was somewhat of a backwater, very rural. At the end of the 19th century, after a series of calamities claimed the lives of the people there,  the Habsburg empire decided to relocate Germans to the area, since they were good at farming and also built railways to make it easier to bring the agricultural products to the cities. 

The railway line was established towards the end of 1880s and ran from Pinkafeld till Szombathely. But after WWI, Burgenland became part of Austria, while the larger cities like Sopron or Szombathely remained in Hungary. The railway had to cross an international border. After WWII and with the communist regime in Hungary cross border travel completely stopped. Today the line isn' t used anymore, but there are some talks to re-open it.

A special postmark was issued by Austria on 31-Jan-2019 commomerating the 130 years of the Szombathely Pinkafeld Railway line. The stamp is a private ( Personal Stamp ) one for the occasion. They are printed by the Austrian Post and are officially valide but are not for sale at post offices. This service is mostly used by communities or, like here , by the stamp collecting club of Pinkafeld, to commemorate a local event. The envelope was posted at Pinkafeld to Szombathely ( delivery postmark on the reverse ). It is interesting that the cover has not been claimed and resent to the sender .

Thanks Tom for this special cover :)