History Of Gosau
Early Settlement and Salt Industry
The valley around Gosau was settled in the 13th century by monks from St. Peter’s Abbey in Salzburg, who were granted the rights to the land by the Babenberg dukes of Austria. Gosau was first mentioned in a document in 1231, as “Gosowe”. Most of the residents lived from forestry and delivered the wood to Hallstatt for salt production. Many farmers ran an alpine pasture, where they grazed their cattle and produced cheese and butter. Most of these alpine pastures are still preserved today, and some of them are open to visitors.
In 1295, a saltworks built in Gosau by Albrecht I of Habsburg, the first Habsburg ruler of Austria, was destroyed by troops of Archbishop Konrad IV of Fohnsdorf. This was the climax of the Gosau Salt War from 1293 to 1297, a conflict between the Principality of Austria ob der Enns (Upper Austria) and the Archdiocese of Salzburg over the control of the salt trade. The war ended with a peace treaty in 1297, which confirmed the rights of the Habsburgs to Gosau and the saltworks.
Habsburg Rule and Religious Tensions
Gosau has been a member of the Austrian Principality ob der Enns, which was already Habsburg, at the latest since 1441. Although the precise date of the handover from the Salzburg Archdiocese to the Habsburgs is unknown, the Gosautal’s reputation as the “mother of the forests” may have been much heightened by the Hallstatt saltworks’ demand for wood.
Established in 1507, the St. Sebastian-focused Catholic parish church of Gosau is a part of the Hallstatt mother parish. At the “Kirchschlag,” a clearing next to the Gosaukamm mountain range, a wooden St. Jakob’s church, assigned to the mother parish of Abtenau, most likely existed much earlier.
The Reformation took root in Gosau in the sixteenth century when a large number of the locals converted to Protestantism. Conflicts with the Catholic authorities resulting from their attempts to stifle the Protestant movement followed. At the G Schütt pass in February 1602, troops of Salzburg’s Prince-Archbishop Wolf Dietrich von Raitenau put a stop to a revolt by the Protestant Gosau inhabitants as part of the Salzkammergut Uprising. Property of the rebels was taken, they were apprehended, tortured, and put to death.
Emperor Joseph II allowed the Protestants in Austria significant religious freedom in 1781 when he issued the Patent of Toleration. In Gosau, there was established a Protestant tolerant group that in 1784 constructed a prayer building. Later, in 1869, the prayer house was superseded by the current Gosau Evangelical Parish Church, a bigger building. One demographic anomaly in the Gosau neighborhood was the finding of 1,540 Protestants and 287 Catholics in a 1981 census. Esther Eder is the Protestant pastor as of September 2014.
Modern Times and Tourism
French and Bavarian forces repeatedly seized Gosau during the Napoleonic Wars, plundering and burning the settlement. In the 19th century, as the population grew and the salt business faltered, Gosau experienced hunger and hardship. Many fled in quest of better living to America, Germany, or other regions of Austria.
Part of a huge storage power plant project initiated in 1907 with five power plants planned from Hinteren Gosausee to Lake Hallstatt, the Gosau power plant run by Stern & Hafferl Verkehrsgesellschaft was finished in 1913. The current Gosausee landscape with Dachstein was thus formed and the Vorderer Gosausee’s water level was elevated to its present level. The electric plant increased the local economy and supplied electricity.
The area was a part of the Upper Austrian federal state from 1918. The area was part of the Upper Danube Gau once Austria was seized by the German Reich on March 13, 1938. Upper Austria was restored after 1945. Gosau was included within the zone of American occupation until 1955.
Especially for winter sports and hiking, Gosau became a well-liked tourist destination in the second half of the 20th century. Opening in 1960, the Gosaukamm cable car links the hamlet to the Zwieselalm ski region. Among the most popular sites in the Salzkammergut is the Gosausee, which offers a breathtaking view of the Dachstein glacier. Besides, Gosau is home to a number of cultural festivals, including the Gosau Advent Market, the Gosau Mountain Festival, and the Carnival.
