House numbers – Consecutive numbering throughout the Habsburg lands

It was in Tyrol and Vorarlberg that the first house numbers in the Habsburg Monarchy were introduced in 1767. Within a few years the system had been extended to all the Austrian and Bohemian territories. The reasons for numbering houses had to do with taxation and the army: together with the census the system made it simpler to track down those who were liable for military service. Houses with Jewish residents had to be numbered in a special way, namely by using roman and not arabic numerals.