Salzburg & Salzburgerland

Salzburg the city gives its name to Salzburgerland, the state around it, and both take their name in turn from salt: the Salzach river carried it downstream for centuries, and the trade built the fortified city that grew up on its banks. Salzburg is also where Mozart was born, in 1756, and the old town’s baroque churches and squares are largely a product of the prince-archbishops who ran the city as an independent state until 1803.

South into the mountains

The state narrows and rises sharply south of the city, toward the Hohe Tauern, the highest range in Austria and, at 1,856 square kilometres, the largest national park in the Alps. It was established in stages rather than at once: Carinthia designated its share first, in 1981, Salzburg followed in 1984, and Tyrol completed it in 1992. Salzburgerland’s own high point is Grossvenediger (3,666 m), on the Tyrol border; Grossglockner itself, Austria’s highest mountain, sits just outside the state on the Tyrol-Carinthia line, though the Grossglockner High Alpine Road that crosses the range starts on the Salzburg side, at Fusch. The road charges a toll per vehicle and closes for winter from around late October to early May most years.

Towns and lakes

Zell am See, Kaprun and Saalbach Hinterglemm sit on the northern fringe of the national park and are the state’s best-known bases, built around skiing in winter and lake and mountain walking in summer. Zell am See sits on its own lake, the Zeller See; Wolfgangsee, larger again, lies mostly across the border in the Salzkammergut, the shared lake-and-mountain region covered separately on this site. The Dachstein massif forms the state’s eastern boundary with Styria and Upper Austria, and the Berchtesgaden Alps, shared with Bavaria, close it off to the north.

Walking and season

Salzburgerland’s trail network is dense even by Austrian standards, running from valley-floor paths to high routes connecting mountain huts across the Hohe Tauern’s northern reaches. Summer, roughly June to September, is the main walking season at altitude; the lower valleys and lakes extend that on both ends. Salzburg Hauptbahnhof is the main rail gateway, with regional lines running south up the Salzach and Saalach valleys toward Zell am See and the mountains beyond.