Gastein Tauern

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Gasteiner Tauern is a collective term for two neighboring high alpine mountain passes in the Hohe Tauern , which connect the Pongau Gastein Valley with the Carinthian town of Mallnitz and the Mölltal , and lie on the border between the federal states of Salzburg and Carinthia : the western Niedere Tauern ( ⊙ ) and the eastern Korntauern ( ⊙ ). Both passes, which border the Radhausberg massif to the west and east, are important historical crossings over which marked hiking trails lead today. Since the sources often do not allow the passports to be differentiated, it is worthwhile to look at them together from a historical perspective.

location

There is no road crossing over the Hohe Tauern between Hochtor and Katschberg , only the railway Tauern tunnel offers the possibility of car loading. The two Tauern passes lie above the railway tunnel and were important crossings from Mallnitz over the Tauern to the north in historical times. They are about seven kilometers apart as the crow flies.

Lower Tauern

The Niedere Tauern , also Mallnitzer Tauern or Nassfelder Tauern ( 2,414  m above sea level ) is located a little west of today's railway tunnel and connects the Mallnitzbach valley with the Nassfelder valley and Sportgastein . It separates the Goldberg group in the west from the Ankogel group in the east. A little above the saddle of the pass is the Hagener Hütte ( 2448  m ).

Grain towers

The Korntauern , also known as the Hoher Tauern ( 2459  m above sea level ) is located east of the railway tunnel. It connects the Anlauftal via the Tauernbach valley with the Seebachtal and Mallnitz.

history

Early history and antiquity

Both passes were used in prehistoric times. Finds from the Bronze Age , i.e. the 2nd millennium BC BC, indicate that the passage at the Hohe Tauern was used at that time. The climate in the Neolithic was much warmer than it is today. Almost all glaciers had melted and the snow line was significantly higher then than it is today. Nevertheless, crossing the pass at these early times was a dangerous step that we can hardly understand today. But it was probably the Romans who developed the prehistoric path into a mule track and the town of Mallnitz into an important base for their crossing of the Alps . In later times, the crossing over the Niedere Tauern lost its importance, but the one over the Hohe Tauern retained it until modern times.

Modern times

By the late Middle Ages at the latest , there was a lot of mule traffic across both passes. Even if the contemporary documents make different statements, it seems likely that at least one of the two passports was kept open in winter. Only in severe winters does this seem not to have been the case, but otherwise it is referred to in multiple places as winter use.

The mule paths were probably used particularly briskly in the 17th century, until a wine inspection was set up at Hofgastein in 1698 and the last customs loophole in the Tauern was closed. The duty levied here was nevertheless quite low, which is why a not insignificant part of the traffic continued to use the Gasteiner Tauern to e.g. B. to bypass the high customs of Tauernstrasse. At this time the salt trade was probably also strong , as a salt depot for the salt trade to Carinthia was set up in Böckstein at the foot of the Gasteiner Tauern at the beginning of the 17th century . Care was taken to ensure that only as much salt was lined towards the south as wine towards the north. In the 18th century there was still a lot of traffic over both passes, and Friulian wine was particularly lively . At the end of the 18th century, however, both passes fell back into insignificance, the road conditions on other passes were simply too good, and the tax advantage on the Gastein passes no longer existed since the middle of the 18th century.

literature

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ http://www.salzburgmuseum.at/635.html?pmid=300 ( Memento from March 27, 2012 in the Internet Archive )
  2. ↑ Steffan Bruns: Alpine passes - from the mule track to the base tunnel, vol. 4