Schladming, Austria

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.

 

Getting there

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.