Bad Gastein (; formerly ''Badgastein'';

Southern Bavarian Southern Bavarian or South Bavarian, is a cluster of Upper German dialects of the Bavarian group. They are primarily spoken in Tyrol (i.e. the Austrian federal state of Tyrol and the Italian province of South Tyrol), in Carinthia and in the west ...

: ''Bod Goschdei'') is a

spa town A spa town is a resort town based on a mineral spa (a developed mineral spring). Patrons visit spas to "take the waters" for their purported health benefits. Thomas Guidott set up a medical practice in the English town of Bath in 1668. He ...

in the district of St. Johann im Pongau, 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 ...

. Picturesquely situated in a

high valley High Valley is a Canadian country music band from Blumenort, Alberta, a small community near the hamlet of La Crete. The group is composed of Brad Rempel (lead vocals) and his supporting band, Dave Myers (bass guitar), Sam Bergeson (vocals), Ray ...

of 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, it is known for the Gastein Waterfall and a variety of '' Belle Époque'' hotel buildings.

Geography

Bad Gastein is located in the historic ''Pongau'' region, the municipal area of about is the largest in St. Johann im Pongau District. It stretches along the upper Gastein Valley following the course of the Gastein Ache creek, a right tributary of the

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 ...

river. The valley separates the Hohe Tauern

Ankogel Group The Ankogel Group (german: Ankogelgruppe) is a sub-group of the Central Eastern Alps. Together with the Goldberg Group, the Glockner Group, the Schober Group, the Kreuzeck Group, the Granatspitze Group, the Venediger Group, the Villgraten Mounta ...

in the east from the

Goldberg Group The Goldberg Group is a sub-group of the Hohe Tauern mountain range within the Central Eastern Alps. It is located in Austria, in the states of Salzburg and Carinthia. Its highest peak is the Hocharn, . Other well known summits are the Hoher Son ...

in the west. The town centre is located at the Gastein Falls, about above sea level. It is characterised by numerous historic multi-storey hotel buildings erected on the steep slopes. The Gastein municipality comprises the cadastral communities of Badgastein, Böckstein, and Remsach. Its southern parts belong to the Hohe Tauern national park.

Transportation

The Gastein valley 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 ...

, a major railroad running from Schwarzach- Sankt Veit in the north across the Alpine crest through the Tauern Tunnel 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 ...

, Carinthia in the south. Frequent EuroCity and

InterCity InterCity (commonly abbreviated ''IC'' on timetables and tickets) is the classification applied to certain long-distance passenger train services in Europe. Such trains (in contrast to regional, local, or commuter trains) generally call at m ...

trains going along this route connect Bad Gastein with many Austrian cities like

Vienna en, Viennese , iso_code = AT-9 , registration_plate = W , postal_code_type = Postal code , postal_code = , timezone = CET , utc_offset = +1 , timezone_DST ...

Linz Linz ( , ; cs, Linec) is the capital of Upper Austria and third-largest city in Austria. In the north of the country, it is on the Danube south of the Czech border. In 2018, the population was 204,846. In 2009, it was a European Capital ...

and Graz along a single circuit. The ''B167 Gasteiner Straße''

highway A highway is any public or private road or other public way on land. It is used for major roads, but also includes other public roads and public tracks. In some areas of the United States, it is used as an equivalent term to controlled-acces ...

also passes right through the Gastein valley. Through traffic from the northern branch-off at Lend in the Salzach valley passes the lower municipalities of Dorfgastein and Bad Hofgastein before reaching the Bad Gastein centre. However, in Böckstein at the head of the valley, the continuation southwards to

Mallnitz Mallnitz is a municipality in the Spittal an der Drau District in Carinthia, Austria. Geography It is situated in a high valley of the Hohe Tauern mountain range stretching southwards down to Obervellach on the Möll river and separating the ...

in Carinthia requires cars to roll onto a

shuttle train A shuttle train is a train that runs back and forth between two points, especially if it offers a frequent service over a short route. Shuttle trains are used in various ways, in various parts of the world. They commonly operate as a fixed consi ...

(''Autoverladung'') for a short trip through the Tauern Tunnel.

Spa and therapy

The name "Bad" means "spa", reflecting the town's history as a health resort. The local ''Heilstollen'' (literally 'healing tunnel') thermal spring water earned the town its early fame. Theophrastus Parcelsus (1493–1541) had studied the

spring water A spring is a point of exit at which groundwater from an aquifer flows out on top of Earth's crust ( pedosphere) and becomes surface water. It is a component of the hydrosphere. Springs have long been important for humans as a source of fresh ...

to discover its secrets.

Marie Curie Marie Salomea Skłodowska–Curie ( , , ; born Maria Salomea Skłodowska, ; 7 November 1867 – 4 July 1934) was a Polish and naturalized-French physicist and chemist who conducted pioneering research on radioactivity. She was the first ...

(1867–1934) and Heinrich Mache (1876–1954) helped to discover that it contained

radon Radon is a chemical element with the symbol Rn and atomic number 86. It is a radioactive, colourless, odourless, tasteless noble gas. It occurs naturally in minute quantities as an intermediate step in the normal radioactive decay chains through ...

and as a result radon therapy began in the town. Radon inhalation therapy at the ''Gasteiner Heilstollen'' began as a result of further investigation into the anecdotal experiences of silver miners who noticed improvements in symptoms from various ailments including arthritis.

Ankylosing spondylitis Ankylosing spondylitis (AS) is a type of arthritis characterized by long-term inflammation of the joints of the spine typically where the spine joins the pelvis. Occasionally areas affected may include other joints such as the shoulders or hi ...

(also known as Bekhterev's disease), in particular, has been claimed to see positive results from treatment at the Heilstollen. However, there is no empirical evidence of any benefit to inhaling radon. For example, one of the few studies to test the efficacy of spa treatments for ankylosing spondylitis found no statistically significant difference between a group that spent three weeks at Bad Gastein and a group that spent three weeks at a different spa without radon inhalation therapy. Claims of therapeutic benefits of radiation, beyond its application in radiotherapy, are considered

quackery Quackery, often synonymous with health fraud, is the promotion of fraudulent or ignorant medical practices. A quack is a "fraudulent or ignorant pretender to medical skill" or "a person who pretends, professionally or publicly, to have skill, ...

by medical professionals. Bad Gastein Gasteiner Ache Wasserfall

History

The remote valley was settled by Bavarian peasants in the 9th century; field names in the highest-lying southern parts also denote a Carantanian ( Slavic) colonization. Gastein is first mentioned as ''Gastuna'' in a 963 deed, when the area belonged to the German stem duchy of

Bavaria Bavaria ( ; ), officially the Free State of Bavaria (german: Freistaat Bayern, link=no ), is a state in the south-east of Germany. With an area of , Bavaria is the largest German state by land area, comprising roughly a fifth of the total lan ...

. It was originally an alpine farming and

gold mining Gold mining is the extraction of gold resources by mining. Historically, mining gold from alluvial deposits used manual separation processes, such as gold panning. However, with the expansion of gold mining to ores that are not on the surface, ...

area and the site of an ancient trade route crossing the main ridge of the

Central Eastern Alps The Central Eastern Alps (german: Zentralalpen or Zentrale Ostalpen), also referred to as Austrian Central Alps (german: Österreichische Zentralalpen) or just Central Alps, comprise the main chain of the Eastern Alps in Austria and the adjacen ...

. In 1297 Duke Otto III and his brother Stephen I, both highly indebted, sold it to the Prince-Archbishops of Salzburg. Already about 1230, the minnesinger

Neidhart von Reuental Neidhart (Middle High German ) (later often called Neidhart von Reuental) was one of the most famous . With around 1500 documented strophes of his songs surviving, Neidhart has the largest corpus of surviving lyrics of any , suggesting the great ...

had referred to the hot springs in his

Middle High German Middle High German (MHG; german: Mittelhochdeutsch (Mhd.)) is the term for the form of German spoken in the High Middle Ages. It is conventionally dated between 1050 and 1350, developing from Old High German and into Early New High German. Hig ...

poem ''Die Graserin in der Gastein''; the spas were visited by the Habsburg emperor Frederick III as well as by the Renaissance physician Paracelsus. In the 19th century the waters of Bad Gastein became a fashionable resort, visited by European monarchs as well as the rich and famous. Some notable guests of the past included

Empress Elisabeth of Austria Duchess Elisabeth Amalie Eugenie in Bavaria (24 December 1837 – 10 September 1898) was Empress of Austria and Queen of Hungary from her marriage to Emperor Franz Joseph I on 24 April 1854 until her assassination in 1898. Elisabeth was ...

(''Sisi'') and the German Emperor

Wilhelm I William I or Wilhelm I (german: Wilhelm Friedrich Ludwig; 22 March 1797 – 9 March 1888) was King of Prussia from 2 January 1861 and German Emperor from 18 January 1871 until his death in 1888. A member of the House of Hohenzollern, he was the ...

with his chancellor Otto von Bismarck as well as Subhas Chandra Bose, a leading Indian nationalist, Tsar

Ferdinand I of Bulgaria , image = Zar Ferdinand Bulgarien.jpg , caption = Ferdinand in 1912 , reign = 5 October 1908 – , coronation = , succession = Tsar of Bulgaria , predecessor = Himself as Prince , successor = Boris III , rei ...

, King Faisal I of Iraq, King

Ibn Saud of Saudi Arabia Abdulaziz bin Abdul Rahman Al Saud ( ar, عبد العزيز بن عبد الرحمن آل سعود, ʿAbd al ʿAzīz bin ʿAbd ar Raḥman Āl Suʿūd; 15 January 1875Ibn Saud's birth year has been a source of debate. It is generally accepted ...

and Iran's last king Mohammad Reza Pahlavi, industrialists like

Wilhelm von Opel Wilhelm von Opel (15 May 1871 – 2 May 1948), known as Wilhelm Opel before being ennobled in 1917, was one of the founders of the German automobile manufacturer Opel. He introduced the assembly line to the German automobile industry. His fathe ...

and artists like

Heinrich Mann Luiz Heinrich Mann (; 27 March 1871 – 11 March 1950), best known as simply Heinrich Mann, was a German author known for his socio-political novels. From 1930 until 1933, he was president of the fine poetry division of the Prussian Academy ...

Robert Stolz Robert Elisabeth Stolz (25 August 188027 June 1975) was an Austrian songwriter and conductor as well as a composer of operettas and film music.Stanley Sadie Ed. (2002) ''The New Grove Dictionary of Opera'', Oxford University Press Biogra ...

and

W. Somerset Maugham William Somerset Maugham ( ; 25 January 1874 – 16 December 1965) was an English writer, known for his plays, novels and short stories. Born in Paris, where he spent his first ten years, Maugham was schooled in England and went to a German un ...

. On 14 August 1865 Bismarck had signed the

Gastein Convention The Gastein Convention (german: Gasteiner Konvention), also called the ''Convention of Badgastein'', was a treaty signed at Bad Gastein in Austria on 14 August 1865.Wolfgang Neugebauer (ed.): ''Handbuch der preußischen Geschichte''. Band 2: ''Da ...

with Austria concerning the joint administration of the provinces of

Schleswig The Duchy of Schleswig ( da, Hertugdømmet Slesvig; german: Herzogtum Schleswig; nds, Hartogdom Sleswig; frr, Härtochduum Slaswik) was a duchy in Southern Jutland () covering the area between about 60 km (35 miles) north and 70 km ...

and

Holstein Holstein (; nds, label=Northern Low Saxon, Holsteen; da, Holsten; Latin and historical en, Holsatia, italic=yes) is the region between the rivers Elbe and Eider. It is the southern half of Schleswig-Holstein, the northernmost state of German ...

after the

Second Schleswig War The Second Schleswig War ( da, Krigen i 1864; german: Deutsch-Dänischer Krieg) also sometimes known as the Dano-Prussian War or Prusso-Danish War was the second military conflict over the Schleswig-Holstein Question of the nineteenth century. ...

. The composer

Franz Schubert Franz Peter Schubert (; 31 January 179719 November 1828) was an Austrian composer of the late Classical and early Romantic eras. Despite his short lifetime, Schubert left behind a vast ''oeuvre'', including more than 600 secular vocal wo ...

composed his Piano Sonata in D Major in Bad Gastein, and was once believed to have sketched a ''Gmunden-Gastein Symphony'' ( D. 849) during his stay in August and September 1825. Though no score appears to have survived for the latter, it is often identified with the Symphony No. 9 in C major (D. 944). Mass

tourism Tourism is travel for pleasure or business; also the theory and practice of touring, the business of attracting, accommodating, and entertaining tourists, and the business of operating tours. The World Tourism Organization defines tourism mor ...

was pushed by the opening of the

station in 1905. From the 1960s on the resort lost some of its former reputation and many former hotels sit empty. Recently, Bad Gastein renovated its ''Felsentherme'' in 2014.

Places of interest

* * Catholic parish church * Gletschermühlen * Felsentherme * Gasteiner Heilstollen * Gasteiner Heimatmuseum im Haus Austria

Traditions

Bad Gastein has vibrant pagan traditions that have been slightly assimilated into Roman Catholic tradition. One example of the

pre-Christian Alpine traditions The central and eastern Alps of Europe are rich in folklore traditions dating back to pre-Christian times, with surviving elements originating from Germanic, Gaulish (Gallo-Roman), Slavic ( Carantanian) and Raetian culture. Survival through t ...

is the

Krampus Krampus is a horned, anthropomorphic figure in the Central and Eastern Alpine folklore of Europe who, during the Advent season, scares children who have misbehaved. Assisting Saint Nicholas, or Santa Claus, the pair visit children on the nigh ...

, now adopted as one of the

Companions of Saint Nicholas The companions of Saint Nicholas are a group of closely related figures who accompany Saint Nicholas throughout the territories formerly in the Holy Roman Empire or the countries that it influenced culturally. These characters act as a foil to ...

. The Krampus is an elemental, horned and demonic character, playfully re-enacted by bands of male revellers during December and also once every four years during a Perchten event or Perchtenlauf. The Perchtenlauf happens every four years at Bad Gastein. The most recent was in 2014.

Climate

Bad Gastein has a

humid continental climate A humid continental climate is a climatic region defined by Russo-German climatologist Wladimir Köppen in 1900, typified by four distinct seasons and large seasonal temperature differences, with warm to hot (and often humid) summers and freezing ...

(

Dfb DFB may refer to: * Deerfield Beach, Florida, a city * Decafluorobutane, a fluorocarbon gas * Dem Franchize Boyz, former hip hop group, Atlanta, Georgia * Dfb, Köppen climate classification for Humid continental climate * Distributed-feedback ...

) bordering on a subarctic climate (Dfc) due to the town's high elevation. Summers are mild, sometimes warm with cool, refreshing nights. Winters are moderately cold and snowy, with annual snowfall averaging 136 inches (345 cm).

Sports

Beside its water treatments, the town is popular for winter sports. Bad Gastein hosted the 1958 World Championships in alpine skiing and regularly is a scene of the snowboarding and boardercross worldcup. The Bad Gastein and Bad Hofgastein ski resort is part of the larger Ski Amadé network, with Gastein valley having 4 ski areas with over 200 kilometers of downhill slopes. Many establishments on the slopes offer warmth, food and strong drinks. Since 2007, the town also annually hosts the Gastein Ladies tennis tournament, an

International International is an adjective (also used as a noun) meaning "between nations". International may also refer to: Music Albums * ''International'' (Kevin Michael album), 2011 * ''International'' (New Order album), 2002 * ''International'' (The T ...

event on the

WTA Tour The WTA Tour is a worldwide top-tier tennis tour for women organized by the Women's Tennis Association. The second-tier tour is the WTA 125K series, and third-tier is the ITF Women's Circuit. The men's equivalent is the ATP Tour. WTA Tour tou ...

, attracting top players like Julia Görges.

Notable people

Franz Schubert by Wilhelm August Rieder 1875

Thea Hochleitner Dorothea "Thea" Hochleitner (10 July 1925 – 11 May 2012) was an Austrian alpine skier who competed in the 1956 Winter Olympics. She was born in Bad Gastein Bad Gastein (; formerly ''Badgastein''; Southern Bavarian: ''Bod Goschdei'') ...

(1925–2012), alpine skier * Hans Eder (1927–2008), Nordic skier *Franz Xaver Franzmair (1901–1988) hotelier and builder, Freeman of Bad Gastein *Hermann Greinwald (1927–1990) doctor and mountain rescue doctor *Fritz Gruber (born 1940) local historian of Gastein alley and botanist *

(1797–1828) composed after a holiday in Bad Gastein the "Gasteiner

Piano Sonata in D major, D 850 (Schubert) Franz Schubert's Piano Sonata in D major D. 850, Op. 53, known as the ''Gasteiner'', was written during August 1825 whilst the composer was staying in the spa town of Bad Gastein. A year later, it became only the second of his piano sonatas to be ...

" *Karl Straubinger (1855–1924) mayor (1882–1917), freeman of Bad Gasteins * Georg Thomalla (1915–1999) German actor *

Karl Heinrich Waggerl Karl may refer to: People * Karl (given name), including a list of people and characters with the name * Karl der Große, commonly known in English as Charlemagne * Karl Marx, German philosopher and political writer * Karl of Austria, last Austri ...

(1897–1973) author, freeman of Bad Gastein *Erwin Wexberg (1889–1957) individual psychologian, doctor, student of Alfred Adler * Eckart Witzigmann (born 1941) Austrian master cook, freeman of Bad Gastein *Maria Zittrauer (1913–1997) lyrician, Trakl-Prize-winner 1952 *Fedor Ivanovich Shalyapin, singer,

Feodor Chaliapin Feodor Ivanovich Chaliapin ( rus, Фёдор Ива́нович Шаля́пин, Fyodor Ivanovich Shalyapin, ˈfʲɵdər ɪˈvanəvʲɪtɕ ʂɐˈlʲapʲɪn}; April 12, 1938) was a Russian opera singer. Possessing a deep and expressive bass v ...

Notes

References

External links

* http://www.gastein.com – official homepage
www.slopeseeker.com – An independent guide to skiing in Bad Gastein
* https://web.archive.org/web/20190822151847/https://www.gasteinertal.com/
Many pictures of Bad Gastein
* http://www.gasteiner-heilstollen.com * https://web.archive.org/web/20100421012723/http://gastein360.com/ – Gastein 360 panoramas, See Gastein and come to feel Gastein
Bad Gastein photo gallery
{{authority control Spa towns in Austria Cities and towns in St. Johann im Pongau District Ski areas and resorts in Austria Ankogel Group Goldberg Group Belle Époque