Gmunden the health resort
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Gmunden the health resort

The legendary competition with imperial residence Bad Ischl

At the beginning of the 19th century the importance of the salt trade diminishes hugely and slowly but surely Gmunden loses its most significant source of income. So what could be more obvious than to offer the wealthy city dwellers of the Biedermeier period exactly what they are looking for? A healthy climate and an unspoiled landscape. Country houses and summer residences are built, with the Gmunden-Linz horse-drawn railway providing transport from 1836.

In 1861 a modern curative and bathing facility is opened and a year later Gmunden acquires health resort status. This means that a special visitors’ tax can be collected during the official curative season, from June 1st to September 30th.

But the competition does not sit idly by; health resort Bad Ischl for instance has permission to call itself the imperial summer residence from 1849. Not only does Emperor Franz Joseph I spend his summer holidays there, but even gets engaged to Elisabeth of Bavaria, his Sisi, there in 1853.

Money is invested in Gmunden in order to keep up. A casino is opened in 1868, in 1899 a sanatorium with a hotel on the southern slope of the Hochkogel follows. In addition there is a wide range of entertainments on offer, with concerts in the curative chapel and well-known Viennese actors being brought in for productions at the Gmunden State Theatre during the curative season.

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