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Gerlos Alpine Road history

Gerlos pass and Gerlos Alpine Road

The course of history: from alpine pass to popular panoramic road

It has been verified that people already lived on both sides of the Gerlos pass in the Zillertal and Salzachtal more than 3,500 years ago. The mountain pass was presumably crossed back then as well. The significance of the path across Alps increased by leaps and bounds when gold was discovered on the Rohrberg high above Zell am Ziller. Up to the Final Recess of the Imperial Deputation after the end of the Napoleonic Wars, the Zillertal was part of the Archdiocese of Salzburg, yet the only path to it led across Bavaria and Tyrol. In order to avoid the consequences of the ongoing dispute over mining yields, Salzburg’s archbishops finally wanted to construct an “internal” access route to the gold.
Governor Lechner and Franz Wallack
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