The area around Schärding was inhabited since the Neolithic period. Before the year 15 v. Chr. The Romans were advancing to the Danube and the innviertel and Schärding part of the Roman. Noricum was populated Celts the area. 488 n. Chr., King Odoacer withdraw its troops to the south. West Germanic Bavarians migrated about 30 years later upriver and occupied the area between the Vienna Woods and Lech. The place names ending in '-ing', '-ham' and '-heim' clearly indicate the path of conquest. The name of the district capital 'Scardinga "is derived from the settlement of a Skardo with his family.

As Passau farmyard scardinga Schärding 804 is first mentioned in a document. Since the 10th century, the town became the center of the county of the Counts of Formbach-Neuburg. The advantageous geographical location of the castle rock near the Inn was utilized early to plant an attachment. From 1160 it belonged to the rule of the Counts of Andechs, from 1248 the Wittelsbach.

By the situation at the Inn itself Schärding developed into a commercial center, especially for salt, wood, ores, wine, silk, glass, corn, draperies and livestock. End of the 13th century the town was granted market rights. After many changes of ownership in the 14th century Schärding was on 20 January 1316 (by the Wittelsbach) and finally on September 24, 1364 applicable to the city for the first time (by Rudolf IV. Of Habsburg). 1369 ended the peace of Schärding the dispute between Bavaria and the Tyrol Austria, which fell to the Habsburgs pledged warping thing itself back to Bavaria.

From 1429 to 1436 the fortifications of the city were Duke Ludwig the Gebarteten expanded (including the outer castle gate, the moat and Linzer Tor, Passau gate and Watergate were built as part of the construction). During the Thirty Years' War - especially in the years 1628, 1634, 1645, 1647 and 1651 - plague raged in the city.

As a result of the Bavarian Succession War until then Bavarian innviertel and thus warping thing was awarded the Habsburgs in the Treaty of Teschen (1779). After (had been burned in the course of which the city on April 26, 1809) of the Napoleonic wars the innviertel 1810 the Paris Peace returned again to Bavaria, the city came after the Congress of Vienna in 1816 returned to the Habsburg influence and was thus suddenly at the edge of the state; the old trade routes were cut off by a customs border. After the first annexation to the Habsburg lands (1779) of the salt trade was at a standstill because Austria was referring the salt from the Salzkammergut and also the salt trade was a state monopoly. In addition to that lost its importance as a transportation route, including the construction of the railways of the Inn. The ensuing economic stagnation is the reason why Schärding today has an almost completely preserved historic townscape in the typical Inn-Salzach architecture.

Schärding is a member of the Association of Small Historic Towns.

Source: http://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Schärding