Flachau valley

Flachau Valley (Flachau)
The Flachau, view from the valley entrance to the southeast. In the foreground Reitdorf , behind it Feuersang and in the far right Flachau Ort . Left in the background the Strimskogel , in the middle and dominating the picture the Lackenkogel (half left and further in the foreground its wooded secondary summit Koppen ), right, in the far background, the main ridge of the Radstädter Tauern .
location	Ennspongau , Province of Salzburg , Upper Austria
Waters	Enns , Pleißlingbach
Mountains	Mosermandl Group / Steinfeldspitzen Group ( Radstädter Tauern )
Geographical location	47 ° 18 '  N , 13 ° 24'  E Coordinates: 47 ° 18 '  N , 13 ° 24'  E
Type	Trough valley
rock	weakly metamorphic permo - Triassic siliciclastics (" Alpine Verrucano "), weakly metamorphic Triassic carbonate rocks , pre-Alpidic phyllites and gneisses
height	1200 to  860  m above sea level A.
length	15 km
climate	alpine
use	inhabited (community Flachau )
particularities	Tauern motorway  (A10) with Tauern tunnel ; historical mining ( Eisenhütte Flachau ), skiing area snow space Flachau

The Flachau valley , generally the Flachau , is the source valley of the Enns in the Lower Tauern in the province of Salzburg . It largely corresponds to the core area of ​​the Flachau community and is crossed by the Tauern motorway  (A10).

Location and landscape

The approximately 15 km long valley is located in the province of Salzburg in the Ennspongau , the part of the Pongau drained by the Enns and its tributaries , and forms the upper end of the Ennstal. It branches off from the Altenmarkt-Radstädter basin to the south into the Radstädter Tauern and extends up to about 3 km to its main ridge, which is also a section of the main Alpine ridge . The western neighboring valley of the Flachau valley is the Kleinarltal , the easternmost of the Pongau valleys draining north to the Salzach (and therefore no longer part of the Ennspongau). The eastern neighboring valley is the Zauchental , which belongs to the Radstädter Tauern and drains the Enns. To the south, beyond the main Alpine ridge (with the Mosermandl as the highest point locally: 2680  m above sea level ), is the Riedingtal , the upper Zederhauser valley .

The border between the Flachau valley and the Altenmarkt-Radstädter basin runs largely smoothly at heights of 860  m above sea level. A. The lower Flachau can in principle still be added to the basin up to the branch of the Litzlingtal to Wagrain . The Litzingtal is the eastern part of a terrain furrow that connects the upper Ennstal over the Wagrainer Höhe ( 953  m above sea level ) to the west with the Salzach valley .

The villages of Höch , Schachen , Ransburg and Reitdorf are located in the wide, lower Flachau valley . To the south, in the increasingly narrowing valley, follow Feuersang , Hundsdörfl and Flachau Ort . The Flachauwinkl connects to the south of Flachau Ort , a particularly narrow section of the valley with a few scattered houses. At Ennslehen , south of the Flachwinkel , the Flachau valley divides in front of the Benzegg ( 2076  m above sea level ) to about 1020  m above sea level. A. into a western branch, the actual source valley of the Enns, and an eastern branch, the so-called Pleißlingtal with the Pleißlingbach. These southernmost parts of the Flachau valley are uninhabited and already relatively narrow. The Pleißlingtal extends further south than the source valley of the Enns and divides to about 1110  m above sea level. A. again into a western and an eastern branch, which is drained by the Marbach and the upper Pleißlingbach. At the Tauernalm ( 1192  m above sea level ), at the end of the western branch, is the northern entrance to the Tauern tunnel .

geology

The Flachau valley is located on the northern edge of the central Eastern Alpine near the northwestern edge of the Tauern window . The rocks that emerge there (from the tectonically deepest to the tectonically highest) are assigned to the Radstadt ceiling system, the Silvretta-Schladming-Seckau ceiling system and the Koralpe-Wölz ceiling system.

As is typical for the central Eastern Alps, these are pre-Alpine crystalline with retrograde Alpine metamorphosis (“central Alpine basement ”) and Permo-Mesozoic metasediments with progressive Alpine metamorphosis (“central Alpine overburden”). The degree of metamorphosis of the metasediments is generally very low in the west of the Radstädter Tauern (“sub-green slate facial”).

The crystalline (Koralpe-Wölz ceiling) comprises phyllites , quartz phyllites and gneisses , the original rocks of which come from the older Paleozoic . They only occur in the north, near the entrance to the valley. The majority of the valley slopes are marbled with marbles and dolomite (Radstädter ceilings), the parent rocks of which were deposited in the higher Triassic , as well as metaconglomerates and other weakly metamorphic silica (“ Alpine Verrucano ” of the Silvretta-Schladming-Seckau ceilings), their parent rocks deposited in the Permian and Early Triassic.

At the transition from the Flachau Valley to the Altenmarkt-Radstädter Basin, the geological boundary runs between the central Eastern Alps and the neighboring western Grauwackenzone or its geographical equivalent, the Slate Alps (here the Fritztal Mountains of the Salzburg Slate Alps ). The border takes the form of a main fault, which is a section of the Salzach-Enns-Mariazell-Puchberg Fault (SEMP), one of the most important faults in the Eastern Alps. It is considered to be the structural cause of the Salzach-Enns long valley furrow, to which the roughly east-west running sections of the Salzach and upper Ennstal belong. At the SEMP, the ceiling units of the western Grauwackenzone are offset both vertically and horizontally from the ceiling units of the central eastern Alps and the Penninic of the Tauern window. The disruption crosses the northern part of the Flachau Valley at roughly the same level as the Flachau motorway exit (Exit 66). The Feuersangberg, which flanks the valley entrance to the east, already consists of rocks from the Grauwackenzone.

The change in geology manifests itself among other things. a. in the fact that the Fritztal Mountains are lower in height and have a softer shape than the Kalk- and Verrucanoberge south of the Altenmarkt-Radstädter Basin.

History and economy

The Flachau is documented as “ totam Flachowa et Hyrshalm ” (“whole Flachau and Hirschalm”) as early as 1130/35 , and until the early modern times “Flachau” was only used as a field name - the name of a place in the narrow sense is only just beginning with the establishment of the Vicariate of Flachau in the Altenmarkt parish in 1722, from where the church village developed.

Until the 20th century, the valley was largely remote, traffic went over the Wagrainer Höhe and in the Zauchener parallel valley over the Radstädter Tauern ( Obertauern ). Only iron mining and the Flachau ironworks were significant. It was only with the construction of the Tauern motorway and the Tauern tunnel in 1975 that the valley became part of one of the most important Alpine transversals .

Today it is primarily the Flachau ski area , the Flachau mountain railways , and now snow space Flachau . As early as the 1980s, this formed the three-valleys ski area Flachau – Wagrain – Sankt Johann , from which the Salzburger Sportwelt and the Ski amadé , one of the largest ski associations in the Alps, emerged. Flachauwinkl is connected to Zauchensee in the ski paradise Zauchensee-Flachauwinkl .

Individual evidence

1. ↑ historically for example "in the Thale Flachau bey Radstadt". Benedikt Pillwein (Ed.): History, geography and statistics of the Archduchy of Austria above the Enns and the Duchy of Salzburg . With a register, which is also the topographical and genealogical lexicon and the district map. Geographical-historical-statistical detail according to district commissariats. 1st edition. Fifth part: the Salzburg district . Joh. Christ. Quandt, Linz 1839, p. 95  ( Google eBook - Faks. Druckhaus Nonntal, Salzburg 1983). 2nd edition 1843 ( Google Book )
2. ↑ When the Enns emerges from the Flachau valley immediately west of Altenmarkt , the Enns flows 80 kilometers eastwards between the Limestone and Central Alps and only breaks through into the foothills of the Alps to the Danube after the Gesäuse in Upper Austria's Ennstal .
3. ↑ the Salzach shows exactly the same angular course as the Enns. Accordingly, the Krimmler Achental was also regarded as the source valley of the Salzach for a long time before the official source was relocated to the Salzach vulture .
4. ↑ Information of the entire section is mainly taken from: Geologische Bundesanstalt (Hrsg.): Geologische Karte von Salzburg 1: 200.000. Coordination: R. Braunstingl, Vienna 2005 ( geologie.ac.at )
5. ↑ Source copy. 13th century, Salzburger Urkundenbuch II, p. 209, lines 30 and 33
6. ↑ Extract from the parish chronicle: Flachau parish church - establishment of the Flachau vicariate in 1722 . at Flachau.salzburg.at