Snapshot

Mittersill is the functional heart of the upper Pinzgau, a market town at the junction of the Salzach and Felbertal valleys where the road south goes through the Felbertauern Tunnel to East Tyrol and the Großvenediger. It holds a National Park Centre for the Hohe Tauern National Park and a castle hotel with an improbable 20th-century social history. As a base for the upper Pinzgau it is unmatched for practical access and rail connections.

The Story

Mittersill’s identity is the junction. The town sits where the Salzach valley and the Felbertal meet, and since the medieval period that position has meant trade: salt and copper moving one way, silk and wine the other. The 1357 market charter made the arrangement official, and the fortified Felberturm tower at the entrance to the Felbertal still marks the gate.

The castle on the hill above town carries a stranger history. Schloss Mittersill received its horseshoe plan after a peasant uprising burned the original fortress in 1528. By the 1930s it had become the Exclusive Society Club, a private aristocratic retreat founded by Baron Hubert von Pantz that attracted international high society before the war. Dutch Queen Juliana and her husband spent their honeymoon here in 1946. The castle is now a hotel; the 54 rooms include the Coco Chanel Suite and the Queen Juliana Honeymoon Suite.

The more substantive draw for most visitors is the National Park. The Nationalpark Hohe Tauern Zentrum sits in Mittersill town and is free to enter with the Nationalpark Summercard; its 1,800-m2 exhibition covers the park’s ecology from high glacier to valley meadow. From Mittersill the road network fans out: east to Rauris and its gold-mining valley, north to the Pinzgauer Lokalbahn toward Zell am See, and south through the Felbertauern to the Großvenediger approaches in East Tyrol.

The Pinzgauer Lokalbahn narrow-gauge railway deserves a mention. It connects Mittersill to Zell am See in under an hour and continues (where the track is operating) toward Krimml, putting the Krimml Waterfalls and the upper Pinzgau villages within easy reach without a car.

Planning

Mittersill is approximately 90 km west of Salzburg by road, around 75 minutes. By rail, take the main Salzburg to Zell am See line and then change to the Pinzgauer Lokalbahn (total approximately two hours). From Mittersill: Rauris is 20 km south-east (30 minutes); Krimmler Wasserfalle are 35 km to the west along the Pinzgau valley. The Felbertauern Tunnel to East Tyrol and the Großvenediger is directly south. The National Park Centre in town is free with the Nationalpark Summercard. Schloss Mittersill operates as a hotel year-round. Mittersill is the best base for combining the upper Pinzgau, the Hohe Tauern national park approaches, and the Rauris valley in one stay.