AUSTRIA Salzkammergut Bad Ischl Salzburg,1894 Antique Colour Map

HISTORICAL MAP CHART- Rail and Route Map

The Salzkammergut is east of Salzburg, Austria, spanning the federal states of Upper Austria, Salzburg, and Styria. The name Salzkammergut means "possession of the salt chamber" and is so-called because it belonged to the Imperial Salt Chamber, the authority charged with running the precious salt mines in the Habsburg empire. Laufen is a small German town located on the southeastern border of Bavaria. Laufen, situated inside the Salzach river bend lies directly across the river from the Austrian town of Oberndorf, where the carol "Silent Night" was first performed at St. Nicola church by the school master Franz Gruber and the young priest Joseph Mohr in 1818. It was first mentioned in a deed of 748. The rapids that gave the town the name (Laufen = rapid running waters) were also responsible for the town's wealth from the salt trade. Small boats that transported the extremely valuable cargo from the rapids north of Salzburg were reloaded at Laufen to larger boats by privilege of the Prince Archbishop of Salzburg. When the independent principality was finally divided in 1816 between the Bavarian kingdom and the Habsburg Empire in the wake of the Napoleonic Wars, the town was split into a Bavarian part carrying the name of Laufen and into an Austrian town (the former Laufen suburbs on the right hand side of the river) by the name of Oberndorf. With the building of railways by the middle of the 19th century the transport of salt on the river Salzach came to an end, taking away the former source of wealth. A number of floods devastated both towns by the end of the century. Central Europe lacked the access to shipping routes that made an international salt trade possible round the coasts of northern Europe. Salt could be economically transported only over short distances, and local sources of salt became important commercial centers, often wielding a good deal of political power. From about 1000 BC onward (and possibly since 2500 BC, and maybe for unrecorded millenia before that), a brisk salt-mining and salt-shipping trade was centered on the valley of the Salzkammergut, in what is now Austria. The surface deposits were worked out by 1000 BC, and the salt miners drove galleries 400 meters into the mountain side, reaching depths below the entrances of 100 m .

1890s Wood Engraving, Antique Map

Approximate Overall Size: 7 1/2 X 9 1/2 inches

CONDITION: Book Plate Map - Excellent Condition. German Text. Beautiful with excellent detail. Blank on Reverse Side