Hüttschlag is a municipality with 909 inhabitants (as of January 1, 2020) in the Salzburg region in the St. Johann im Pongau district in Austria. Hüttschlag has shares in the Hohe Tauern National Park and is a mountaineering village.
The Grossarl Valley was first mentioned in a document around 930
AD. Around the year 1000 the Archdiocese of Salzburg became the
landlord and, since the late 14th century, also the provincial ruler
of Salzburg. In 1672 the valley became an independent regional court
district. From 1805 to 1810 and since 1816 the place belonged to
Austria.
400 to 800
According to tradition, Slavs from
Carinthia and Lungau invaded the valley around this time. Several
place names such as Klettn, Karteis, Schrambach, Tofern or Moritzen
are of Slavic origin. The Bavarians, who later invaded, ousted the
Slavs, and acts of war are said to have often occurred, especially
in the Tappenkar and Bundschuh regions. After that the Bavarians got
the upper hand.
12th Century
The population of the
Archdiocese of Salzburg, which at that time still belonged to
Bavaria, grew steadily and the farmers were no longer able to feed
the people. Archbishop Konrad therefore suggested clearing more land
and making it usable.
Areas in the subalpine region have been
used as alpine pastures since ancient times, the lower areas were
often still heavily forested. Soon, however, the first settlers made
their way into the valley. Initially, they were looking for the best
and, above all, sunniest places to erect the so-called branches
there and to protect their pets from bears and lynxes. One such
branch was also branch huts.
On the left side of the gorge,
the first climb into Grossarltal is said to have been built around
1330.
20th and 21st centuries
Hüttschlag has held shares
in the Hohe Tauern National Park since 1991. The hiking offer
attracts tourists to Hüttschlag. Alongside small and medium-sized
businesses, tourism is developing into Hüttschlag's economic
mainstay. Since 2008, Hüttschlag has been part of the
Bergsteigerdörfer ÖAV initiative, which has set itself the goal of
promoting sustainable tourism.
Mining
Copper and sulfur
mining is said to have been carried out in Hüttschlag as early as
the 14th and 15th centuries. Traces of wooden wedges, scratching
irons and pickaxes can still be seen in the oldest tunnels. The ore
was initially melted in the Hütteggalm. Larger processing and
melting plants were located in Wolfau. A natural disaster in 1517
buried and completely destroyed these facilities (Hubalmbach). The
mining, however, promised to be more productive and so it was
decided to build larger plants in today's local area of
Hüttschlag. The large copper smelter with five furnaces, eight
sulfur furnaces and all the processing plants were built around
1520. In addition, many buildings were built around them, some of
which are still preserved today in their original form. Mining
brought an economic boom for Hüttschlag. It was often said in rural
circles at the time that the miners had "tricky mouths".
In
1863, under the last mine administrator, Franz Guggenbichler, mining
in Hüttschlag ended. Many miners emigrated with their families and
looked for employment elsewhere. After mining ended, the valley
became increasingly impoverished. The population sank from approx.
2000 to 470. The main occupation had to be switched to agriculture
and forestry. The place owes its name to mining, it is derived from
hut or smelter and fell, clearing.
With the mining, the
Protestant faith came to Hüttschlag. Already in the 17th century it
was brought to Grossarltal by foreign miners and spread very
quickly. A total of 1,100 people had to leave the valley as a result
of the evictions of Protestants. Most emigrated to East Prussia and
Northern Germany. The cardholder at the time is said to have been
the leader of the Protestants in the valley.
School system
Mine functionaries who were able to read and write campaigned for
the establishment of a school in this mining town. In 1755, lessons
could be started in the sacristan's house for the first time. The
first teacher was the sacristan Max Paumann at the time. Due to the
increasing number of pupils in the initial Sunday classes, the
sacristan's room had to be rebuilt and expanded several times until
a classroom was added in 1831 and 1905. The highest number of pupils
in this old school, which taught for 205 years, was 165. In the
years 1958 to 1960, a new elementary school was finally built. In
the period from 1940 to 1972 there was also the Maurach School.