Fresach was always at the intersection of different cultures, languages and religions. There are some ancient finds there such as the Bronze Age axes. Later Celts, Illyrians and Romans settled her next to and with each other. Around 590 AD. Slavs settled in Fresach in the 8th century the Bavarians. In the 12th century the first Catholic church was built, in 1478 the town was destroyed by the Turks. After the end of Ortenburgers 1518, the area was under Habsburg rule and the majority of the population Protestant. Even after the Counter-Reformation, many remained true to their faith. After the Toleration Act of Emperor Joseph II in 1782, the Protestant parish Fresach was founded. in 1787 the first school house was built. Today the community of Fresach is made up of about two-thirds beeing Evangelical, and a third of the residents are Catholic. Fresach is the home of Olympic champion Franz Klammer (Innsbruck 1976), and was the seat of the Lutheran theologian Dr. Oskar Sakrausky (1914-2006) after his retirement. He was a bishop of the Evangelical Church and chairman of the Association of Evangelical faith tradition in Carinthia in the 1970s and worked closely with the Catholic Cardinal Franz König. The International Annual Writers Conference Fresach, was held every May and was for uninterruptedly for twenty two years, until 1993. It was founded by the President of the Carinthian Writers’ Association, Prof. Walter Nowotny, with the aim of bringing together people from East and West Europe. Numerous publications and an own mail stamp commemorate these events. The Museum and Tolerance Center, the many memories and the respectful treatment of others and strangers predestined Fresach today to carry the message of tolerance and peaceful coexistence in the vision of the world. There are claims that Fresach is due to to be designated as European tolerance village.
