Gmunden

Gmunden stands at the northern end of the Traunsee where the river leaves it, and it made its living first on salt, shipped down from the Salzkammergut and transhipped here, and then on ceramics. Gmundner Keramik has been produced in the town since the sixteenth century and the green-striped pattern, brushed on by hand, is recognised across Austria; the factory runs tours and a shop. The Traunsee-Tram, opened in 1894, ran for over a century as a line of about two and a half kilometres and was regularly cited as the shortest tram line in the world before it was extended in 2018 to join the Traunseebahn. Schloss Ort stands on its island offshore, the Traunstein rises opposite, and the lake steamers leave from the promenade.

History

Salt was mined here around 1000 BC, a settlement existed by the 5th century AD, and by 1186 Gmunden was a fortified place within walls, becoming a town in 1278, though it had no church until about 1300. It was long an important centre of the salt trade of the Salzkammergut, and later a much visited health and summer resort, offering lake, brine, vegetable and pine-cone baths, a hydropathic establishment, inhalation rooms and whey cures (Wikipedia, Gmunden).

What to look for

• Gmundner ceramics - the hand-brushed green-striped ware and its factory.
• A famously short tram - the 1894 line, once the shortest in the world.
• Schloss Ort - the island castle offshore with its wooden bridge.
• The Traunstein opposite - the wall rising off the far shore of the lake.

When to go

May to September. A day.

What to expect

The tram was extended in 2018, so the shortest-in-the-world claim no longer holds. Factory tours book ahead. The lake is deep and cold. Summer weekends crowd the promenade.

Nearby

Traunkirchen and Ebensee are down the lake; Bad Ischl is south.

Key facts