Schwarzach im Pongau is a

market town A market town is a settlement most common in Europe that obtained by custom or royal charter, in the Middle Ages, a market right, which allowed it to host a regular market; this distinguished it from a village or city. In Britain, small rural ...

in the

St. Johann im Pongau District The Bezirk Sankt Johann im Pongau is an administrative district (''Bezirk'') in the federal state of Salzburg (state), Salzburg, Austria, and congruent with the Pongau region. Area of the district is 1,755.37 km², with a population of 77, ...

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=Bavarian language, Austro-Bavarian) is the List of cities and towns in Austria, fourth-largest city in Austria. In 2020, it had a population of 156,872. The town is on the site of the ...

Geography

It is located in the valley of the Salzach river, between the

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

mountain range (Goldberg and

Ankogel The Ankogel (3,252 m) is a mountain in the Ankogel Group in the eastern High Tauern range in Austria. It is the second highest mountain in the group, the Hochalmspitze being higher at 3,360 m. A cable car from Mallnitz Mallnitz is a municipalit ...

groups) in the south and the Salzburg Slate Alps in the north. The municipal area is quite small, enclosed by the neighbouring municipalities of Sankt Veit and

Goldegg Goldegg, also called Goldegg im Pongau, is a municipality in St. Johann im Pongau District, in the state of Salzburg in Austria. Geography It is situated on a sunny plateau north of the Salzach River, the so-called « Sunny Terrace » at a distan ...

History

Schwarzach in the

Archbishopric of Salzburg The Prince-Archbishopric of Salzburg (german: Fürsterzbistum Salzburg; Erzstift Salzburg; Erzbistum Salzburg) was an ecclesiastical principality and state of the Holy Roman Empire. It comprised the secular territory ruled by the archbishops of ...

was first mentioned in a 1074 deed. Schernberg Castle west of the town centre, a 12th-century fortress, was purchased by Archbishop Friedrich von Schwarzenberg in 1845 and turned into the site of a

brewery A brewery or brewing company is a business that makes and sells beer. The place at which beer is commercially made is either called a brewery or a beerhouse, where distinct sets of brewing equipment are called plant. The commercial brewing of be ...

(''Brauerei Schwarzach''). Soon after, the business was relocated to Schwarzach centre and the castle was converted into a charitable mental hospital run by the Daughters of Charity. During the Austrian ''

Anschluss The (, or , ), also known as the (, en, Annexation of Austria), was the annexation of the Federal State of Austria into the German Reich on 13 March 1938. The idea of an (a united Austria and Germany that would form a " Greater Germany ...

'' to

Nazi Germany Nazi Germany (lit. "National Socialist State"), ' (lit. "Nazi State") for short; also ' (lit. "National Socialist Germany") (officially known as the German Reich from 1933 until 1943, and the Greater German Reich from 1943 to 1945) was ...

from 1938 to 1945, the Daughters fought against compulsory sterilization and the Action T4 "euthanasia" programme, but could not save their patients. In 1875, Schwarzach received access to the Salzburg-Tyrol Railway line (''Giselabahn''), running from the city of

through the Salzach valley to

Wörgl Wörgl () is a city in the Austrian state of Tyrol, in the Kufstein district. It is from the international border with Bavaria, Germany. Population Transport Wörgl is an important railway junction between the line from Innsbruck to Munich, and ...

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 was historically the core of the County of Tyrol, part of the Holy Roman Empire, Austrian Emp ...

, which decisively promoted the local economy. With the opening of the Tauern Railway across the Central Eastern Alps to

Spittal an der Drau Spittal an der Drau is a town in the western part of the Austrian federal state of Carinthia. It is the administrative centre of Spittal an der Drau District, Austria's second largest district (''Bezirk'') by area. Geography The town is located o ...

Carinthia Carinthia (german: Kärnten ; sl, Koroška ) is the southernmost States of Austria, Austrian state, in the Eastern Alps, and is noted for its mountains and lakes. The main language is German language, German. Its regional dialects belong to t ...

, the station became an important railway junction. Schwarzach was split off the Sankt Veit municipality in 1906 and received market rights two years later.

Notable people

* Adolf Krischanitz (born 1946), architect * Patrick Reiter (born 1972), retired judoka *

Stefan Obermaier Stefan Obermaier (born 8 January 1981) is an Austrian electronic musician, producer and DJ. Born in Salzburg, Stefan Obermaier lives and works in Vienna since 2001. He produces different house music styles, downtempo and electronica. Life and ...

(born 1981), musician *

Andrea Fischbacher Andrea Fischbacher (born 14 October 1985) is a retired alpine ski racer from Austria. Career Born in Schwarzach im Pongau, Salzburg, Fischbacher now lives in Eben im Pongau. She made her World Cup debut in March 2004 in Sestriere, Italy, wher ...

(born 1985), alpine skier, olympic champion *

Michaela Kirchgasser Michaela Kirchgasser (born 18 March 1985) is a retired Austrian alpine ski racer. She raced in the technical events of slalom and giant slalom, and also the combined. Career On 25 November 2006, Kirchgasser made her first World Cup podium wi ...

(born 1985), alpine skier * Marco Salvatore (born 1986), football player * Iris Strubegger (born 1984), fashion model *

Stefan Kraft Stefan Kraft (born 13 May 1993) is an Austrian Ski jumping, ski jumper. He is one of the most successful contemporary athletes in ski jumping, having won the FIS Ski Jumping World Cup, Ski Jumping World Cup and FIS Ski Flying World Cup, Ski Flyi ...

(born 1993), ski jumper * The author

Thomas Bernhard Nicolaas Thomas Bernhard (; 9 February 1931 – 12 February 1989) was an Austrian novelist, playwright and poet who explored death, social injustice, and human misery in controversial literature that was deeply pessimistic about modern civilizati ...

(1931–1989), suffering from

tuberculosis Tuberculosis (TB) is an infectious disease usually caused by '' Mycobacterium tuberculosis'' (MTB) bacteria. Tuberculosis generally affects the lungs, but it can also affect other parts of the body. Most infections show no symptoms, in ...

had to spend much time in the area as a patient at the sanatorium in nearby Sankt Veit. He made Schwarzach the setting of his first novel ''

Frost Frost is a thin layer of ice on a solid surface, which forms from water vapor in an above-freezing atmosphere coming in contact with a solid surface whose temperature is below freezing, and resulting in a phase change from water vapor (a gas) ...

'' published in 1963. *

Giuliana Olmos Giuliana Marion Olmos Dick (born 4 March 1993) is a Mexican professional tennis player. Olmos, who graduated from the University of Southern California in 2016, has a career-high singles ranking of world No. 343 by the Women's Tennis Association ...

, Mexican tennis player

References

{{authority control Cities and towns in St. Johann im Pongau District