Zell am See

Zell am See sits on a lake of about four and a half square kilometres in the Pinzgau, with the Schmittenhöhe rising directly behind the town and the Kitzsteinhorn glacier at the head of the Kaprun valley a few kilometres south, and the two are marketed and lifted as one area - which gives a resort with lake swimming in summer and glacier skiing that runs deep into spring. The town has a medieval core with the Romanesque St Hippolyt church and a lakeside promenade. The Pinzgauer Lokalbahn narrow-gauge railway runs west to Krimml. The area is heavily developed and busy in both seasons, with a large Gulf-state summer clientele in recent decades, and the lake is clean enough to swim in from a set of lidos round the shore.

History

The area has been lived in at least since Roman times, and about 740 monks sent by Bishop John I of Salzburg founded the village, named in 743 as Cella in Bisonzio, a monastic cell in the Pinzgau. Zell became a market town in 1357, it passed to Austria by decision of the Congress of Vienna in 1816, and after 1850 its mayor won the district seat for the town; the Giselabahn railway opened on 30 July 1875 and began the summer tourist season, Empress Elisabeth visited the Schmittenhöhe in 1885 and Franz Joseph came in 1893, and Zell received town rights on 24 January 1928 (Wikipedia, Zell am See).

What you'll find

• A lake under a ski mountain - the Schmittenhöhe rising straight off the town.
• Glacier skiing above - the Kitzsteinhorn at the head of the Kaprun valley.
• A medieval core - the Romanesque church and old streets behind the promenade.
• The Pinzgauer Lokalbahn - the narrow-gauge line running west to Krimml.

When to go

All year; summer for the lake, winter and spring for the glacier. Two days.

Before you go

It is busy and commercialised in both seasons, and prices reflect that. The lake is cold outside high summer. The Kitzsteinhorn is a separate ticket and a drive or bus from the town.

Nearby

Kaprun and the high reservoirs are south; the Krimml falls are west.

Key facts