Gmunden, Upper Austria, Austria

🇦🇹 Gmunden is a town in Upper Austria, Austria in the district of Gmunden. It is much frequented as a health and summer resort, and has a variety of lake, brine, vegetable and pine-cone baths, a hydropathic establishment, inhalation chambers, whey cure, etc. It is also an important centre of the salt industry in Salzkammergut.

History In 1000 BCE the Illyrians were mining salt here. A settlement was already in existence in the fifth century CE. By 1186 Gmunden was a fortified place surrounded by walls, although it did not receive a church until about 1300. In 1278 Gmunden became a town. On November 14, 1626, an army of rebellious peasants was completely defeated at Gmunden by General Pappenheim, who had been ordered by Maximilian I to suppress the peasant rebellion in Upper Austria. The dead peasant insurgents were buried in nearby Pinsdorf, where an obelisk styled memorial known as the Bauernhügel in their honour can still be seen.

Gmunden supplied naval ships to Austria during the 17th century and helped wounded soldiers in hospitals in World War I. During World War II, an SS maternity home was located here, "to insure racial purity" in accordance with Nazi racial theories.

Geography Gmunden covers an area of 63.49 square km (24.51 sq mi) and has a median elevation of 425 metres (1,394 ft). It is situated next to the lake Traunsee on the Traun River and is surrounded by high mountains, including the Traunstein (mountain) (5,446 feet or 1,660 metres), the Erlakogel (5150 ft), the Wilder Kogel (6,860 feet or 2,090 metres) and the Höllengebirge.

Gmunden is divided into the following boroughs: Gmunden, Gmunden-Ort, Schlagen, Traundorf, Unterm Stein.

Tourist Industry There are a great number of excursions and points of interest round Gmunden, specially worth mentioning being the Traun Fall, 10 miles (16 km) north of Gmunden, a castle called Schloss Ort, and a ceramic factory producing Gmundner Keramik branded pottery. The town hall is also a popular tourist destination.

Gmunden Tramway The Gmunden Tramway is part of the tram-train-system Traunsee Tram, that opened in 2018 and is located in Upper Austria, Austria. The Traunsee Tram connects the shortest and oldest tram system in Austria with the Traunseebahn. It is operated by Stern & Hafferl, which was founded in 1893. The tramway was opened on 13 August 1894. It is 2.3 km long. The line's maximum gradient of 9.6% makes it one of the world's steepest surviving adhesion-only tram lines.