A selection of the most important milestones in Rust's eventful history

First documented mention of own parish.

Rust is raised to market status. The first privileges granted to the citizens of Rust derive from this period (right to hold markets and the right to choose a "Marktrichter" (market judge) for themselves)

Emergence of the "Zech", the guild of wine-growers, and the confirmation of wine exportation privileges by Matthias Corvinus.

The Market Town or Rust is for the first time surrounded and fortified by walls, ditches and other bulwarks.

In this year the citizens of Rust are permitted to burn a crowned "R" into their barrels (Queen Mary of Hungary). Many people in Rust still use this branding on their wine corks today.

Rust is ravaged by the Turks.

The town was never damaged again in any other war and the old townscape has not changed since this date.

The plague ravages Rust. Many inhabitants flee to Lower Austria especially the area around Wiener Neustadt.

Emperor Ferdinand II grants Rust the right to hold a weekly market every Tuesday.

The citizens of Rust redeem themselves of all duties, payments, services, compulsion in religion and the jurisdiction of the domain of Magyaróvár and purchase their autonomy for 12 years by payment of 6,000 Gulden in cash and 1,000 pails of "Ausbruch", a premium sweet white dessert wine from Rust. After the expiry of these years living in freedom, the town of Rust has to succumb a further 9,000 Gulden to the Emperor in 1660 to extend its freedom for a further 20 years.

Emperor Leopold I raises the town's status to that of a "royal free city" on December 3, 1681 at the Imperial Diet of Sopron. The citizens of Rust purchase their city charter for 60,000 Gulden in cash and have to deliver 500 pails of Ausbruch, a premium sweet white dessert wine from Rust, for the Imperial Hofburg Palace.

Kuruzzen (loosely organised cavalry) wars: Rust gives up without a fight. Count Karoly, a Kuruzzen General, sets up his main headquarters in Rust.

Austro-French war: Hostile French soldiers march into Rust.

Emperor Ferdinand grants the "royal free city" of Rust the right to hold a total for four annual markets.

The centuries-old privileges are abolished. The Austro-Hungarian Empire mandates the "royal free city" of Rust to the Comitatus, or administrative unit, of Sopron.

The province of Burgenland - which also includes Rust - becomes Austrian. Rust becomes a chartered town, exercises autonomy by means of its own town charter and is thus the smallest administrative district in Austria (to the present day). 

The old town of Rust is the first town to be put under the protection of the Hague Convention.

The "royal free city" of Rust becomes a "model town" alongside Salzburg and Krems during the "European Architectural Heritage Year", because there is a vital and not a revitalised old town here.

The "wine-growing town" of Rust twins with the "beer-producing town" of Kulmbach / Federal Republic of Germany.

The first German-speaking "Wine Academy" in the world is founded in Rust.

The old town of Rust is entered into the list of UNESCO World Cultural Heritage sites together with the region of Fertö-to/Lake Neusiedl.