Sankt Polten, an old town and episcopal see of Austria, in Lower Austria, 38 m. W. of Vienna by rail. Pop. (1900) 14,510. It is situated on the Traisen, a tributary of the Danube, and contains an interesting old abbey church, founded in 1030 and restored in 1266 and again at the beginning of the 18th century. There are several religious educational institutions in the town, and a military academy for engineers. The industries include cotton spinning and milling, as well as the manufacture of iron and hardware, and small arms. Sankt Polten was an inhabited place in the Roman period. An abbey dedicated to St Hippolytus was founded here in the 9th century, around which the town developed. It was called Fanum Sancti Hip polyti, from which, by corruption, the actual name is derived. It was surrounded with walls and fortifications in the time of Rudolf of Habsburg, but these were demolished in modern times.
See Lampel, Urkundenbuch des Chorherrenstifts Sankt Pollen (Wien, 1891-1901, 2 vols.).
