Ebensee am Traunsee (; ) is a

market town A market town is a settlement most common in Europe that obtained by custom or royal charter, in the Middle Ages, a market right, which allowed it to host a regular market; this distinguished it from a village or city. In Britain, small rura ...

in the

Traunviertel The Traunviertel is an Austrian region belonging to the state of Upper Austria. It is one of four "quarters" of Upper Austria and its name refers to the river Traun which passes through the area. Region The district includes the Linz-Land, St ...

region of the

Austria Austria, formally the Republic of Austria, is a landlocked country in Central Europe, lying in the Eastern Alps. It is a federation of nine Federal states of Austria, states, of which the capital Vienna is the List of largest cities in Aust ...

n state of

Upper Austria Upper Austria ( ; ; ) is one of the nine States of Austria, states of Austria. Its capital is Linz. Upper Austria borders Germany and the Czech Republic, as well as the other Austrian states of Lower Austria, Styria, and Salzburg (state), Salzbur ...

, located within the Salzkammergut Mountains at the southern end of the

Traunsee Traunsee ( , ) is a lake in the Salzkammergut, Upper Austria, Austria. Its surface is approximately 24.5 km2 and its maximum depth of 191 metres makes it the deepest and by volume largest lake located entirely within Austrian territory; only ...

. The regional capital

Linz Linz (Pronunciation: , ; ) is the capital of Upper Austria and List of cities and towns in Austria, third-largest city in Austria. Located on the river Danube, the city is in the far north of Austria, south of the border with the Czech Repub ...

lies approximately to the north, nearest towns are

Gmunden Gmunden () is a town in Upper Austria, in the district of Gmunden (district), Gmunden. It has 13,204 inhabitants (estimates 2016 ). Geography Gmunden covers an area of and has a median elevation of . It is situated next to the lake Traunsee on t ...

and Bad Ischl. The municipality also comprises the Katastralgemeinden of Langwies, Oberlangbath, Rindbach, Kohlstatt and Roith.

History

With the Traunviertel, Ebensee since 1180 belonged to the

Duchy of Styria The Duchy of Styria (; ; ) was a duchy located in modern-day southern Austria and northern Slovenia. It was a part of the Holy Roman Empire until its dissolution in 1806 and a Cisleithanian crown land of Austria-Hungary until its dissolution i ...

held by the

House of Babenberg The House of Babenberg was a noble dynasty of Austrian Dukes and Margraves. Descending from the Popponids and originally from Bamberg in the Duchy of Franconia (present-day Bavaria), the Babenbergs ruled the imperial Margraviate of Austria from ...

from 1192, until in 1254 King

Ottokar II of Bohemia Ottokar II (; , in Městec Králové, Bohemia – 26 August 1278, in Dürnkrut, Austria, Dürnkrut, Lower Austria), the Iron and Golden King, was a member of the Přemyslid dynasty who reigned as King of Bohemia from 1253 until his death in 1278 ...

finally allocated it to his Austrian duchy. Ebensee itself was first mentioned in a 1447 deed. From 1596 on Emperor

Rudolf II Rudolf II (18 July 1552 – 20 January 1612) was Holy Roman Emperor (1576–1612), King of Hungary and Croatia (as Rudolf I, 1572–1608), King of Bohemia (1575–1608/1611) and Archduke of Austria (1576–1608). He was a member of the H ...

had a

salt evaporation pond A salt evaporation pond is a shallow artificial salt pan designed to extract salts from sea water or other brines. The salt pans are shallow and expansive, allowing sunlight to penetrate and reach the seawater. Natural salt pans are formed thr ...

erected near the settlement, supplied with

brine Brine (or briny water) is a high-concentration solution of salt (typically sodium chloride or calcium chloride) in water. In diverse contexts, ''brine'' may refer to the salt solutions ranging from about 3.5% (a typical concentration of seawat ...

being delivered via a long pipeline from the salt mines around

Hallstatt Hallstatt () is a small town in the district of Gmunden District, Gmunden, in the Austrian state of Upper Austria. Situated between the southwestern shore of Hallstätter See and the steep slopes of the Dachstein massif, the town lies in the Sa ...

. Ebensee therefore was the primary production centre for salt in Austria. Historically, the site was chosen because of the rich forests, whose wood was used to boil the salt out of the brine. In 1883 the Belgian chemist Ernest Solvay established soda works of the Solvay company at Ebensee. Although a former industrial center in the larger

Salzkammergut The Salzkammergut (, ; ) is a resort area in Austria, stretching from the city of Salzburg eastwards along the Alpine Foreland and the Northern Limestone Alps to the peaks of the Dachstein Mountains. The main river of the region is the Traun (r ...

region, it has recently fallen on bad fortunes with the closure of some of the larger factories.

Nazi concentration camp

In 1943, the SS established Ebensee concentration camp (codename "Zement") near the town, a planned emergency location for the

Peenemünde Peenemünde (, ) is a municipality on the Baltic Sea island of Usedom in the Vorpommern-Greifswald district in Mecklenburg-Vorpommern in north-eastern Germany. It is part of the ''Amt (country subdivision), Amt'' (collective municipality) of Used ...

research centre after the RAF Operation Hydra attack. It was part of the Mauthausen network. Slave laborers were worked to death digging tunnels for armaments storage. The camp was liberated by American soldiers in May 1945. Due to the extremely high death rates, Ebensee is considered one of the most horrific Nazi concentration camps. Used as a

Displaced Persons camp A refugee camp is a temporary settlement built to receive refugees and people in refugee-like situations. Refugee camps usually accommodate displaced people who have fled their home country, but camps are also made for internally displace ...

after the war, the area is today site of a memorial and a museum.

Population

Politics

Seats in the municipal assembly (''Gemeinderat'') as of 2021 elections: *

Social Democratic Party of Austria The Social Democratic Party of Austria ( , SPÖ) is a social democratic political party in Austria. Founded in 1889 as the Social Democratic Workers' Party of Austria (, SDAPÖ) and later known as the Socialist Party of Austria () from 1945 unt ...

(SPÖ): 16 *

Austrian People's Party The Austrian People's Party ( , ÖVP ) is a Christian-democratic and liberal-conservative political party in Austria. Since January 2025, the party has been led by Christian Stocker (as an acting leader). It is currently the second-largest p ...

(ÖVP): 6 * Citizens' List for Ebensee (BÜFE): 11 *

Freedom Party of Austria The Freedom Party of Austria (, FPÖ) is a political party in Austria, variously described as far-right, right-wing populist, national-conservative, and Eurosceptic. It has been led by Herbert Kickl since 2021. It is the largest of five part ...

(FPÖ): 4

Tourism

Ebensee is surrounded by three picturesque lakes, the

, the Offensee and the Langbathsee. The Traunsee is large enough to be used for boating, while the other two lakes are smaller, surrounded by mountains, and used only for bathing; both are protected natural areas. On the shore of the Langbathsee is a 19th-century hunting lodge erected at the behest of Emperor

Franz Joseph I of Austria Franz Joseph I or Francis Joseph I ( ; ; 18 August 1830 – 21 November 1916) was Emperor of Austria, King of Hungary, and the ruler of the Grand title of the emperor of Austria, other states of the Habsburg monarchy from 1848 until his death ...

. Since 1927 an

aerial tramway An aerial tramway, aerial tram, sky tram, cable car or aerial cablecar, aerial cableway, ropeway, téléphérique (French), or Seilbahn (German) is a type of aerial lift which uses one or two stationary cables for support, with a third movin ...

built by the Bleichert engineering company runs up to the summit of the Feuerkogel mountain. Other tourist attractions include the Gasselhöhle

show cave A show cave—also called tourist cave, public cave, and, in the United States, commercial cave—is a cave which has been made accessible to the public for guided visits. Definition A show cave is a cave that has been made accessible to ...

and a small skiing area with about ten lifts. Parts of the 1968 ''

Where Eagles Dare ''Where Eagles Dare'' is a 1968 action adventure war film directed by Brian G. Hutton and starring Richard Burton, Clint Eastwood and Mary Ure. Set during World War II, it follows a Special Operations Executive team charged with saving a ca ...

'' film were shot in the Ebensee area.

Climate

Feuerkogel is a nearby mountain peak with a weather station on it.

Twin towns – sister cities

Ebensee is twinned with: *

Prato Prato ( ; ) is a city and municipality (''comune'') in Tuscany, Italy, and is the capital of the province of Prato. The city lies in the northeast of Tuscany, at an elevation of , at the foot of Monte Retaia (the last peak in the Calvana ch ...

, Italy, since 1987 *

Zawiercie Zawiercie () () is a town in southern Poland located in the Silesian Voivodeship with 49,334 inhabitants (2019). It is situated in the Kraków-Częstochowa Upland near the source of the Warta River. The town lies near the historical region of Sil ...

, Poland, since 2000

Notable people

* Frederick Katzer (1844–1903), Bishop of Green Bay

References

External links

* {{Authority control Mauthausen concentration camp Cities and towns in Gmunden District