At
the beginning of the 19th century, the countryside can be characterised as a
self-developing system without any influences from the outside.
?This condition could be described as paradisiacal but with the snag ? as usual
in paradise ? that those living in it cannot appreciate it.? (Achleitner 1997:
165)
Due to the Industrialisation, man?s regard to his environment changed strongly.
Small industries were the starting point of new human settlement in the
countryside. The means of transportation of the Industrialisation was the
railway, which launched the development of a number of today?s tourist regions
in Austria.
The changing situation through Industrialisation made the countryside appear to
be paradisiacal on the verge of destruction.
The construction of railway lines in the alpine region presented a major
challenge. The landscape, marked through a rough topography, was not the ideal
place for the new means of transportation. It was a challenge to overcome the Alps by train. One of these railway lines ? over the
Austrian Alps ? was the Semmering railway. It was supposed to connect the royal
seat of the Danube Monarchy, Vienna, with its
most important seaport, Trieste.
While the railway lines from Vienna to Gloggnitz
(1842) as well as from Graz to Mürzzuschlag
(1844) had already been finished, the connection over the Semmering, the last
branch of the Alps, was still missing. The
train journey from Vienna to Graz had to be adjourned and the Semmering
had to be overcome via horse and cart. The towns of Schottwien and Mürzzuschlag
became increasingly important for the region; they became locations for
blacksmiths, horse and cart enterprises, and accommodation facilities. During
the construction of the Semmering railway, Schottwien, where the site office of
the railway construction was located, had a short upsurge.
- Title Original : Wächterhäuser entlang der Semmeringbahn
- Website : http://
- Project start : 0201
- Project end : 0201
- Contact Person : Tusch Roland, Project Leader
- Funding Agency : Verein der Freunde der Semmeringbahn, Paßhöhe 248, 2680 Semmering, Austria
- Project Partners : Federal Ministry for Education, Arts and Culture, Minoritenplatz 5, 1014 Wien, Austria. Contact person: Dr. Bruno MaldonerÖBB-Infrastruktur Bau AG, Vivenotgasse 10, 1120 Wien, Austria. Contact person: Dr. Günter Dinhobl
- Project structure : Basic Research
- Location : Austria, Schottwien, lat : 47.657231600000000000 - lng : 15.872605099999987000