A landscape reshaped by transport: the Austrian Salzkammergut from salt economy to national leisure region
For centuries the Salzkammergut in Austria was a remote mountainous region dominated by the salt economy, transporting the salt by water. When, from the early 1820s, it became Austria's most fashionable tourism area, transport conditions underwent rapid modernisation and on the eve of the First World War, the region boasted a modern inter-modal transport system suited to upper-class tourism. At the same time, the Salzkammergut turned into a focal point of national identity. After the Second World War, the region lost its technological lead due to a number of factors including private motorisation, but it retained its supposed typical Austrian character until today.