Schladming is a municipality in the area of the Expositur
Gröbming, Liezen district in Styria (Schladming judicial district).
With 6600 inhabitants (January 1, 2020) it is the largest
municipality in the Gröbming branch and the second largest city in
the district. Schladming, an important winter sports resort, hosted
the Alpine Ski World Championships in 1982 and 2013 and the Special
Olympics in the winters of 1993 and 2017.
The first
documented mention of a settlement at this point goes back to the
year 1180 (Slaebnich, altslow. "Schluchtberg"). The town charter was
first documented in 1322. It can be traced back to the flourishing
mining industry in the Schladminger Tauern, where up to 1,500 miners
were employed. It is from here that initial efforts to standardize
the working conditions for miners throughout Europe originate
(Schladminger Bergbrief 1408). Silver, lead, copper, and later
cobalt and nickel were mined.
When the miners took part in
the peasant revolts against the Salzburg authorities (1524–1526) in
the course of the Reformation, Schladming was almost completely
destroyed under Archduke Ferdinand I in 1525 and the town's rights
were revoked. Schladming was not given back its town charter until
1925.
Up to the present day the administration of the
political branch has its seat in the smaller Gröbming, with which
the Counter Reformation shows its aftermath even after almost 500
years.
Mining, which had shaped Schladming's history for
centuries, was gradually stopped in the course of the 19th century.
The next upswing came with the development of the Ennstal with a
railway line in 1875. This started the rise to a tourism and winter
sports center.
The Schladming Hospital was founded in 1947.
The surgeon Hans Martz (* 1912 in Łódź) was his chief physician
until 1961.
As part of the structural reform of Styria, the
municipalities of Pichl-Preunegg and Rohrmoos-Untertal were merged
with Schladming to form the new municipality of Schladming on
January 1st, 2015. A complaint by the municipalities of
Pichl-Preunegg and Rohrmoos-Untertal against the merger at the
Constitutional Court was unsuccessful.
By plane
The nearest airport is in Salzburg and about 90 km
away via the A10 Tauern Autobahn. Vienna Airport is just under three
hundred kilometers away, Munich Airport around 260 kilometers.
By train
Schladming is a station on the Ennstalbahn and a
stop for express trains on the route Salzburg - Bischofshofen -
Schladming - Selzthal - Bruck - Graz.
Schladming train
station has been extensively modernized since summer 2011; the
measure was completed in January 2013 and in time for the Ski World
Cup. Since then, all platforms have been on one level with no
differences in level and have barrier-free access.
By
street
Schladming is located on Ennstal Straße, that is the
Austrian state road B320 along the Enns, the route connects the
Tauern Autobahn A10, symbol: AS Altenmarkt im Pongau in the west
with the Pyhrn motorway A9, symbol: AS Liezen in the east. The
Austrian motorways are toll roads.
from the west (Salzburg
and Munich area):
From Salzburg via the Tauern Autobahn A10 to
the symbol: KN Ennstal (Altenmarkt) and continue for approx. 18 km
in the direction of Schladming. The section of the Tauern Autobahn
A9 from Salzburg is approx. 65 kilometers long, and the toll-free
route of Salzachtal Straße 159 runs parallel to it.
from the
east: via Liezen and Ennstal Strasse approx. 70 km to Schladming.