Wildschönau is a

municipality A municipality is usually a single administrative division having corporate status and powers of self-government or jurisdiction as granted by national and regional laws to which it is subordinate. The term ''municipality'' may also mean the go ...

within the district of

Kufstein Kufstein (; Central Bavarian: ''Kufstoa'') is a town in the Austrian state of Tyrol, the administrative seat of Kufstein District. With a population of about 19,600 it is the second largest Tyrolean town after the state capital Innsbruck. The great ...

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

6 km south of

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 ...

. The 24 km long high valley near

is one of the district's tourist centers. Besides a few

hamlet ''The Tragedy of Hamlet, Prince of Denmark'', often shortened to ''Hamlet'' (), is a tragedy written by William Shakespeare sometime between 1599 and 1601. It is Shakespeare's longest play, with 29,551 words. Set in Denmark, the play depicts ...

s, the municipality consists of the four church villages ''Niederau, Oberau, Auffach and Thierbach'' and is situated in the

Kitzbühel Alps The Kitzbühel Alps (german: Kitzbüheler Alpen or ''Kitzbühler Alpen'') are a mountain range of the Central Eastern Alps surrounding the town of Kitzbühel in Tyrol, Austria. Geologically they are part of the western slate zone (greywacke zone) ...

. The municipal office is located in Oberau. Besides two tourist seasons, the intense highland agriculture plays an economic role. A lot of inhabitants commute to their place of work in other municipalities. The municipality Wildschönau is based on "gentle" tourism and emphasizes not being a ski circuit like the nearby

Kitzbühel Kitzbühel (, also: ; ) is a medieval town situated in the Kitzbühel Alps along the river Kitzbüheler Ache in Tyrol, Austria, about east of the state capital Innsbruck and is the administrative centre of the Kitzbühel district (). Kitzbühel ...

. Several older T-bar lifts in the skiing region of Schatzberg (Auffach) were replaced with two

chair lift An elevated passenger ropeway, or chairlift, is a type of aerial lift, which consists of a continuously circulating steel wire rope loop strung between two end terminals and usually over intermediate towers, carrying a series of chairs. They ...

s. A lift connection with the Alpbach valley was built in Summer 2012. For a long time, there was

mining Mining is the extraction of valuable minerals or other geological materials from the Earth, usually from an ore body, lode, vein, seam, reef, or placer deposit. The exploitation of these deposits for raw material is based on the economic via ...

in the Wildschönau.

Neighbouring municipalities

Alpbach Alpbach (, ) is a town in western Austria in the state of Tyrol. History The earliest written record of the name Alpbach comes from 1150, although human settlement is known to have begun there before and around the year 1000, and a bronze axe f ...

Brixlegg Brixlegg is a market town (since 1927) in the Kufstein district in the Austrian state of Tyrol. The town lies in the Lower Inn Valley and at the entrance of the Alpbachtal. Neighbouring municipalities Alpbach, Kramsach, Radfeld, Rattenberg, ...

Hopfgarten im Brixental Hopfgarten im Brixental is a market town in the Austrian state of Tyrol in the Kitzbühel district. It is located at an elevation of 622 m above sea level. With an area of 166.57 km² it is the largest municipality in the district, and among ...

Kundl Kundl is a market town in the Kufstein district in the Austrian state of Tyrol. Geography Kundl is situated 7.70 km west of Wörgl as well as 18.30 km southwest of Kufstein at the southern side of the Inn River and is made up of 4 part ...

Boundaries

The western border of the valley is formed by the following mountains (listed from north to south):

Gratlspitz The GratlspitzeBundesamt für Eich- und Vermessungswesen: Austrian map series 1:50.000AMAP Online accessed on 18 January 2011Alpenvereinskarte 34/1 Kitzbüheler Alpen, West, 2003. or Gratlspitz, is a mountain in the Austrian state of Tyrol in the ...

, ''Schatzberg'', ''Joelspitze'', ''Lämpersberg'', ''Kleiner Beil'',

Großer Beil The Großer Beil, is a high mountain at the head of the Wildschönau valley in the Austrian state of Tyrol. It belongs to the Kitzbühel Alps and is the highest summit on the ridge that separates the Wildschönau from the neighbouring valley of t ...

(the highest mountain in the valley), and ''Sonnjoch''. In the east there are the: Roßkopf,

Feldalphorn The Feldalphorn, also known as the ''Feldalpenhorn'', is a high mountain in the Kitzbühel Alps in Tyrol, Austria. Location and surroundings The Feldalphorn is part of a mountain ridge that separates the Wildschönau in the west from the Kelc ...

, ''Schwaiberghorn'', ''Breiteggern'', and ''Breiteggspitze'' (listed from north to south). In the north, the valley is separated from the Inntal by a much lower mountain chain, which is cleft by the ''Kundler Klamm'', above which is the ''Kragenjoch''. At the end of the valley is a rather flat pass, the ''Schafsiedeljoch''.

History

The first mention of Wildschönau dates back to 1193–95, when the Bavarian count Henry of Lechsgemünd-Rettenberg transferred some of his people to the

Herrenchiemsee Herrenchiemsee is a complex of royal buildings on Herreninsel, the largest island in the Chiemsee lake, in southern Bavaria, Germany. Together with the neighbouring isle of Frauenchiemsee and the uninhabited Krautinsel, it forms the municipality ...

cloister. Among the testimonies of the deed issued in that circumstance was the

ministerialis 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, ''Minis ...

''«Adelbertus de Wiltsconenŏwe»'' (Albert of Wildschönau).Martin Bitschnau, Hannes Obermair (eds). ''Tiroler Urkundenbuch''. II. Abt.: ''Die Urkunden zur Geschichte des Inn-, Eisack- und Pustertals''. Vol. 2: ''1140—1200''. Innsbruck: Wagner 2012. , p. 382, no. 881.

Coat of arms

Legend has it that the high valley was originally covered by a lake, with a

dragon A dragon is a reptilian legendary creature that appears in the folklore of many cultures worldwide. Beliefs about dragons vary considerably through regions, but dragons in western cultures since the High Middle Ages have often been depicted as ...

living on its shores. A farmer killed the dragon and during its death struggle, it smashed the rocks which retained the lake. The water poured down through the resulting

flume A flume is a human-made channel for water, in the form of an open declined gravity chute whose walls are raised above the surrounding terrain, in contrast to a trench or ditch. Flumes are not to be confused with aqueducts, which are built to tr ...

, the so-called ''Kundler Klamm'', towards the Inn valley and the high valley was released. The coat of arms depicts the legendary dragon, while cleaving the rock.

References

External links

Official page of Wildschönau

Tourist Office Wildschönau
*
Live webcam in the Wildschönau Valley

Alpenverein/Sektion Wörgl-Wildschönau

Homepage of the Schatzbergbahn Auffach

Homepage of the football club Wildschönau

Wildschönau Brewery
Cities and towns in Kufstein District {{Tyrol-geo-stub