Rust is best known as the city of storks and as a wine-growing community. Rust has been part of the Austrian Burgenland since 1921 and has had town charter since 1681, when it was made a Royal Hungarian Free Town.
Old town
The entire picturesque old town area of Rust is now a listed building. The numerous town houses from the 16th to 19th centuries have neat renaissance, baroque or historicist facades with beautiful window and portal frames, bay windows, coats of arms and stucco decorations. Characteristic arched portals and entrance vaults lead into the idyllic inner courtyards or to the even older courtyard wings with covered staircases and arcades, some with remnants of the city wall. The historic city center is protected by the Hague Convention for the Protection of Cultural Property in the Event of Armed Conflict. Blue and white boards mark the individual objects. Besides Salzburg and Krems, Rust is also one of the three model cities in Austria, which were honored in 1975, the year of European architectural heritage, because there is no revitalized, but rather a vital old town. In 2001 the old town of Rust was added to the list of UNESCO World Heritage Sites together with the Lake Neusiedl region. Rust has already been named the most beautiful city in Burgenland several times for its monument preservation and cultural efforts. The houses still have their original function as residential and business premises for the citizens.