page_title: Altaussee
section_title: History
hierarchical_section_title: Altaussee / History
caption_attribution_description: Theodor Herzl (1860-1904) with bicycle in Altaussee.
context_page_description: Altaussee is a municipality and spa town in the district of Liezen in Styria, Austria. The small village is nestled on the shores of the Lake Altaussee, beneath the Loser Plateau. Occupying an area of 92 km², Altaussee is home to 1,777 people. The municipality includes two cadastral communities: Altaussee and Lupitsch. The designated climatic spa is within the Salzkammergut region. Altaussee has the biggest salt deposits of Austria, which are still mined today.
context_section_description: The oldest settlement on the ground of the modern village of Altaussee dates back to the Roman rule (200-400 AD). However, there is no historical continuity of a settlement before the Middle Ages.  The salt mine on the ground of the modern village was first documented in 1147 AD, the village itself in 1265.
  Around 1250 Philipp of Spanheim, the Archbishop-elect of Salzburg, occupied the Ausseerland and the Ennstal. For the coverage of his claim to power he built the small Pflindsberg castle on a hill east of the Altaussee village. He had to withdraw in 1254 and the region returned to Styria. In the following centuries the Pflindsberg castle developed into a regional seignory with the right to hold high justice. It was administered by an official of the styrian Landesfürst.
  In 1848 manorialism was abolished in the cisleithanian part of the Austrian Empire and Altaussee became an autonomous political municipality.
  In the 19th century Altaussee evolved into a popular summer-resort. Especially writers and intellectuals, for example Hugo von Hofmannsthal, Jakob Wassermann, Theodor Herzl and Friedrich Torberg, spent their summer holidays in the small alpine village.
caption: Theodor Herzl at Altaussee 1900
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