Dorfgastein is a municipality in St. Johann im Pongau District, in the

Austria Austria, , bar, Östareich officially the Republic of Austria, is a country in the southern part of Central Europe, lying in the Eastern Alps. It is a federation of nine states, one of which is the capital, Vienna, the most populous ...

n state of

Salzburg Salzburg (, ; literally "Salt-Castle"; bar, Soizbuag, label= Austro-Bavarian) is the fourth-largest city in Austria. In 2020, it had a population of 156,872. The town is on the site of the Roman settlement of ''Iuvavum''. Salzburg was founded ...

Geography

It is located on the northern entrance of the Gastein Valley within the

Hohe Tauern The High Tauern ( pl.; german: Hohe Tauern, it, Alti Tauri) are a mountain range on the main chain of the Central Eastern Alps, comprising the highest peaks east of the Brenner Pass. The crest forms the southern border of the Austrian states of ...

mountain range, south of the broader

Salzach The Salzach (Austrian: �saltsax ) is a river in Austria and Germany. It is in length and is a right tributary of the Inn, which eventually joins the Danube. Its drainage basin of comprises large parts of the Northern Limestone and Central ...

Valley. It is accessible by the

Tauern Railway The Tauern Railway (german: Tauernbahn) is an Austrian railway line between Schwarzach- Sankt Veit in the state of Salzburg and Spittal an der Drau in Carinthia. It is part of one of the most important north-south trunk routes (''Magistrale'') in ...

leading up to Bad Hofgastein and

Bad Gastein Bad Gastein (; formerly ''Badgastein''; Southern Bavarian: ''Bod Goschdei'') is a spa town in the district of St. Johann im Pongau, in the Austrian state of Salzburg. Picturesquely situated in a high valley of the Hohe Tauern mountain range, it ...

, crossing the Alpine crest via the Tauerntunnel. The municipality consists of the cadastral communities of Dorfgastein and Klammstein.

History

The bridle path through the Gastein gorge up to the Tauern passes was first mentioned in a 1212 deed. The village itself (''ze Dorff''), then part of the Archbishopric of Salzburg, was first documented in the oldest Gastein mining regulations of 1342. The St. Rupert parish church was founded in 1350. Dorfgastein burg klammstein

For centuries Klammstein Castle erected high above the historic trade route in the 12th century, served as the administrative seat of the archbishops' keeper of the Gastein Valley. Temporarily held by the Bavarian counts of Ortenburg, it was acquired by the Salzburg archbishop Philip of Spanheim in 1251, whose ''

ministeriales The ''ministeriales'' (singular: ''ministerialis'') were a class of people raised up from serfdom and placed in positions of power and responsibility in the High Middle Ages in the Holy Roman Empire. The word and its German translations, ''Minist ...

'' imposed tolls and secured the area at the valley entrance. The surrounding estates were finally incorporated into the Archbishopric of Salzburg in 1297 with the consent of the Bavarian dukes Otto III and Stephen I. The administrative seat was relocated to neighbouring Hofgastein, after Archbishop Leonhard von Keutschach transferred the castle to his relatives as a gift. In 1589 Archbishop

Wolf Dietrich Raitenau Wolf Dietrich von Raitenau (26 March 1559 – 16 January 1617) was Prince-Archbishop of Salzburg from 1587 to 1612. Life Raitenau was born at Hofen Castle in Lochau, near Bregenz in Further Austria, the son of the Habsburg colonel Hans Werne ...

allowed the demolition of the outer walls. In 1735 the first school opened in Dorfgastein (with electric lighting in the classes from 1921). A telegraph office was established in 1893. A new school building was inaugurated in 1927. The first Dorfgastein ski lift opened in 1959. Today the local '' Großarltal-Dorfgastein'' ski area is part of the larger Ski Amadé region.

References

Ankogel Group Goldberg Group Cities and towns in St. Johann im Pongau District {{Salzburg-geo-stub