Sölden () is a

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

in the Ötztal valley of

Tyrol Tyrol ( ; historically the Tyrole; ; ) is a historical region in the Alps of Northern Italy and western Austria. The area was historically the core of the County of Tyrol, part of the Holy Roman Empire, Austrian Empire and Austria-Hungary, f ...

Austria Austria, formally the Republic of Austria, is a landlocked country in Central Europe, lying in the Eastern Alps. It is a federation of nine Federal states of Austria, states, of which the capital Vienna is the List of largest cities in Aust ...

Geography

At c. , it is the largest municipality in the country. The population of 3,449 (as of 2003) is outnumbered by tourists, of which 15,000 can be accommodated. With tourist bed nights running at over two million per year, the municipality is third only to

Vienna Vienna ( ; ; ) is the capital city, capital, List of largest cities in Austria, most populous city, and one of Federal states of Austria, nine federal states of Austria. It is Austria's primate city, with just over two million inhabitants. ...

and

Salzburg Salzburg is the List of cities and towns in Austria, fourth-largest city in Austria. In 2020 its population was 156,852. The city lies on the Salzach, Salzach River, near the border with Germany and at the foot of the Austrian Alps, Alps moun ...

as an Austrian tourist destination. Sölden has lost some of its former small village charm, but other attractions have been enhanced in recent years. The main village of Sölden is at an

elevation The elevation of a geographic location (geography), ''location'' is its height above or below a fixed reference point, most commonly a reference geoid, a mathematical model of the Earth's sea level as an equipotential gravitational equipotenti ...

above sea level Height above mean sea level is a measure of a location's vertical distance (height, elevation or altitude) in reference to a vertical datum based on a historic mean sea level. In geodesy, it is formalized as orthometric height. The zero level ...

, and the upper village of Hochsölden at has 5 four-star hotels. The highest peak is the Wildspitze, at , the second highest mountain in Austria, after the Großglockner. The Ötztal Glacier Road is the second highest paved road in Europe. It is the access road from Sölden to the Rettenbach glacier and Tiefenbachferner glaciers in the

Ötztal Alps The Ötztal Alps (, ) are a mountain range in the Central Eastern Alps, in the Tyrol (state), State of Tyrol in western Austria and the South Tyrol, Province of South Tyrol in northern Italy. Geography The Ötztal Alps are arrayed at the head of ...

. The English spelling of the town is "Soelden". One may come across websites and directions using this spelling of the town.

History

Population

Settlement

Primitive tools found near present-day Sölden suggest that the region has been settled for thousands of years.

Ötzi Ötzi, also called The Iceman, is the natural mummy of a man who lived between 3350 and 3105 BC. Ötzi's remains were discovered on 19 September 1991, in the Ötztal Alps (hence the nickname "Ötzi", ) at the Austria–Italy border. He i ...

, a famously well-preserved mummy of a man who lived between 3400 and 3100 BC, was found in the Ötztal Alps near Sölden. Sölden as we know it today grew out of 20 buildings in the 13th century AD. One of these buildings which still exists today is the Berghof. A building on the site of the Berghof was first mentioned in 1370. In 1588, the Berghof was listed in the records of St. Petersberg Castle as one of the original farmsteads. The house is now used as accommodation for guests.

Ski resort

Sölden is also a popular

ski resort A ski resort is a resort developed for skiing, snowboarding, and other winter sports. In Europe, most ski resorts are towns or villages in or adjacent to a ski area–a mountainous area with pistes (ski trails) and a ski lift system. In North Am ...

and regularly hosts the first World Cup races of the season; a

giant slalom Giant slalom (GS) is an alpine skiing and alpine snowboarding competitive discipline. It involves racing between sets of poles ("gates") spaced at a greater distance from each other than in Slalom skiing, slalom but less than in Super-G. Giant sl ...

for both men and women is usually scheduled for late October on the Rettenbach glacier. The races in October

2016 2016 was designated as: * International Year of Pulses by the sixty-eighth session of the United Nations General Assembly. * International Year of Global Understanding (IYGU) by the International Council for Science (ICSU), the Internationa ...

started at and finished at , a vertical drop of . * Elevation: (Sölden village) - * Lifts: 33 Sölden Lift plan
Lift numbers * Terrain: total - ( red, blue, black, Skiroute).

References

External links

Soelden.com
- official tourist site
Ski-Austria - Soelden Skiing
{{DEFAULTSORT:Solden Cities and towns in Imst District Ski areas and resorts in Austria