Kühtai is a

winter sport Winter sports or winter activities are competitive sports or non-competitive recreational activities which are played on snow or ice. Most are variations of skiing, ice skating and sledding. Traditionally, such games were only played in cold area ...

s village in the

Stubai Alps The Stubai Alps (in German ''Stubaier Alpen'') is a mountain range in the Central Eastern Alps of Europe. It derives its name from the Stubaital valley to its east and is located southwest of Innsbruck, Austria. Several peaks form the border betwee ...

on the

Kühtai Saddle Kühtai Saddle (german: Kühtaisattel) (el. ) is a mountain pass in the Austrian Alps in the ''States of Austria, Bundesland'' of Tyrol (state), Tyrol. It connects the Ötztal, Ötz river valley from Oetz with Gries im Sellrain. The road from O ...

between the Nedertal valley in the west and the

Sellrain Sellrain is a municipality in the district of Innsbruck-Land in the Austrian state of Tyrol Tyrol (; historically the Tyrole; de-AT, Tirol ; it, Tirolo) is a historical region in the Alps - in Northern Italy and western Austria. The area ...

valley in the east. It is part of the municipality of Silz, in the district of

Imst Imst (; Southern Bavarian: ''Imscht'') is a town in the Austrian federal state of Tyrol. It lies on the River Inn in western Tyrol, some west of Innsbruck and at an altitude of above sea level. With a current population (2013) of 9,552, Imst ...

, in the Austrian state of Tyrol.

Location and population

The village is located at a height of around 2,020 metres and is one of the highest ski resorts in

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 ...

History

Originally there was a ' here, the ''Chutay'' ("cow alp"). This was first mentioned around 1280 in an

urbarium An urbarium (german: Urbar, English: ''urbarium'', also ''rental'' or ''rent-roll'', pl, urbarz, sk, urbár, hu, urbárium), is a register of fief ownership and includes the rights and benefits that the fief holder has over his serfs and peasant ...

of the

counts of Tyrol The (Princely) County of Tyrol was an estate of the Holy Roman Empire established about 1140. After 1253, it was ruled by the House of Gorizia and from 1363 by the House of Habsburg. In 1804, the County of Tyrol, unified with the secularised p ...

. In 1497 the later Emperor Maximilian I was give the right to hunt in the area of the Kühtai. In 1622, Archduke Leopold V had the ''schwaighof'' converted into a hunting lodge and, in 1624, a road was built from

. Emperor Franz Joseph I bought the hunting lodge back in 1893 and used it as a base for hunting

Alpine marmot The alpine marmot (''Marmota marmota'') is a large ground-dwelling squirrel, from the genus of marmots. It is found in high numbers in mountainous areas of central and southern Europe, at heights between in the Alps, Carpathians, Tatras and No ...

s. The property passed via his granddaughter,

Hedwig Hedwig may refer to: People and fictional characters * Hedwig (name), a list of people and fictional characters with the given name * Grzegorz Hedwig (born 1988), Polish slalom canoeist * Johann Hedwig, (1730–1799), German botanist * Romanus Adol ...

to the counts of

Stolberg-Stolberg Stolberg-Stolberg was a county of the Holy Roman Empire located in the southern Harz region. Its capital was the town of Stolberg, now in Saxony-Anhalt, Germany. It was ruled by a branch of the House of Stolberg. In 1429, the County of Wernigero ...

, who turned it into a winter sports hotel. In 2016 it was modernised by its new owners. As early as the 1930s climbers and summer holidaymakers stayed at Kühtai. The hunting lodge was converted in the 19th century into a ''

schloss ''Schloss'' (; pl. ''Schlösser''), formerly written ''Schloß'', is the German term for a building similar to a château, palace, or manor house. Related terms appear in several Germanic languages. In the Scandinavian languages, the cognate ...

'' hotel. The increasing number of skiers in the early 20th century soon reached

Austria-Hungary Austria-Hungary, often referred to as the Austro-Hungarian Empire,, the Dual Monarchy, or Austria, was a constitutional monarchy and great power in Central Europe between 1867 and 1918. It was formed with the Austro-Hungarian Compromise of ...

and, along with that, the Kühtai. Under the direction of the

k.u.k. The phrase Imperial and Royal (German: ''kaiserlich und königlich'', ), typically abbreviated as ''k. u. k.'', ''k. und k.'', ''k. & k.'' in German (the "und" is always spoken unabbreviated), ''cs. és k. (császári és királyi)'' in Hungari ...

Works and Farming Ministry (''Arbeits- und Ackerbauministerium'') the place was opened up as a ski resort in 1909. After the

Second World War World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposin ...

, Kühtai grew rapidly into a hotel village and is today a popular hiking and skiing area. In 1976/77 the church was built. In the course of the

2012 Winter Youth Olympics The 2012 Winter Youth Olympic Games (german: Olympische Jugend-Winterspiele 2012), officially known as the I Winter Youth Olympic Games (YOG), were an international multi-sport event for youths that took place in Innsbruck, Austria, on 13–22 J ...

, the village hosted

snowboarding Snowboarding is a recreational and competitive activity that involves descending a snow-covered surface while standing on a snowboard that is almost always attached to a rider's feet. It features in the Winter Olympic Games and Winter Paralympi ...

and freestyle competitions. At the end of December 2014, the women's 2014/15 Alpine Ski World Cup took place here for the first time (as a replacement for the cancelled competition in Semmering).

Culture and sights

* Kühtai Church: the ''Expositurkirche Kühtai'' * Kühtai Hunting Lodge (''Jagdschloss Kühtai'') and Kühtai Royal Chapel (''Hofkapelle Kühtai'')

References

External links

Kühtai website
{{DEFAULTSORT:Kuhtai Imst District Stubai Alps Ski areas in Austria