Indian Chief Travel Guides

A Brief History of Zell am See & Kaprun

First occupied by early Roman settlers, Zell am See was officially founded in 743 and christened Cella in Bisontio. The town grew up as a stop along the trade route from Italy to Germany – the route now followed by the Grossglockner Hochalpenstrasse through the Höhe Tauern National Park. Zell’s population exported salt to the south and then returning with Italian wine from the north via the perilous transalpine route. In 1875, the railway came to town – gloriously entering along the banks of the lake, and toting tourism into the region.

Nearby Kaprun got its start as a cattle-farming village and mountain- guiding center. They remain important today. Since the early 1900s, the village has also gained renown in Austria for a couple of technological feats: The Glockner-Kaprun hydroelectric plant opened in 1955, integrating a system of reservoirs, rivers, and dams in the manufacture of power; and, a decade, later, the cable car link between the Kaprunertal Valley and the Schmieding Glacier affording Austria its first summer-skiing arena.