Reißeck is a municipality in the district of

Spittal an der Drau Spittal an der Drau is a town in the western part of the Austrian federal state of Carinthia (state), Carinthia. It is the administrative centre of Spittal an der Drau District, Austria's second largest district (''Districts of Austria, Bezirk'') b ...

Carinthia Carinthia ( ; ; ) is the southernmost and least densely populated States of Austria, Austrian state, in the Eastern Alps, and is noted for its mountains and lakes. The Lake Wolayer is a mountain lake on the Carinthian side of the Carnic Main ...

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 ...

Geography

Situated within the valley of the

Möll The Möll (; presumably from , "rubble") is a river in northwestern Carinthia in Austria, a left tributary of the Drava. Its drainage basin is . Course The river rises in the High Tauern range of the Central Eastern Alps on the Pasterze Glacie ...

river, a tributary to the

Drava The Drava or Drave (, ; ; ; ; ), historically known as the Dravis or Dravus, is a river in southern Central Europe.

, Reißeck is located about northwest of the district capital

. The present-day municipality established in 1973 consists of the four cadastral communities Kolbnitz, Zandlach, Penk, and Teuchl. It was named after the Reißeck massif (2,965m/9,727 ft) in the north, part of the

Ankogel Group The Ankogel Group () is a sub-group of the Central Eastern Alps. Together with the Goldberg Group, the Glockner Group, the Schober Group, the Kreuzeck Group, the Granatspitze Group, the Venediger Group, the Villgraten Mountains and the Rieserfern ...

of the

Hohe Tauern The High Tauern ( pl.; , ) are a mountain range on the main chain of the Central Eastern Alps, comprising the highest peaks east of the Brenner Pass. The crest forms the southern border of the Austrian states of Salzburg, Carinthia and East Tyr ...

mountain range. South of the

Möll Valley The Möll (; presumably from , "rubble") is a river in northwestern Carinthia in Austria, a left tributary of the Drava. Its drainage basin is . Course The river rises in the High Tauern range of the Central Eastern Alps on the Pasterze Glacier a ...

rises the Kreuzeck Group. Equidistant between the ski resorts of Ankogel/Mölltal Glacier and

Lake Millstatt A lake is often a naturally occurring, relatively large and fixed body of water on or near the Earth's surface. It is localized in a basin or interconnected basins surrounded by dry land. Lakes lie completely on land and are separate from t ...

, facilities in Kolbnitz include a rafting centre, a riding centre, tennis courts, a small ski area and a swimming pool. Two

funicular A funicular ( ) is a type of cable railway system that connects points along a railway track laid on a steep grade (slope), slope. The system is characterized by two counterbalanced carriages (also called cars or trains) permanently attached to ...

railway lines leave from the Möll valley bottom: the first runs up the

Reißeck Reißeck is a municipality in the district of Spittal an der Drau District, Spittal an der Drau in Carinthia, Austria. Geography Situated within the valley of the Möll river, a tributary to the Drava, Reißeck is located about northwest of the ...

mountain to an altitude of 2236m/7336 ft to walking trails and a hotel; the second leads to the mountain rail station of Mt. Kreuzeck at 1211m/3973 ft, which is the starting point for several alpine walks up to 2498m/8195 ft. The operation of the ''Reißeck Höhenbahn'' on the Reißeck plateau, one of the highest-lying

narrow-gauge railroad A narrow-gauge railway (narrow-gauge railroad in the US) is a railway with a track gauge (distance between the rails) narrower than . Most narrow-gauge railways are between and . Since narrow-gauge railways are usually built with tighter curv ...

s in Europe, was closed down in 2014. Reisseckbahn2

Reißeck has access to the

Tauern Railway The Tauern Railway () is an Austrian railway line between Schwarzach- Sankt Veit in the state of Salzburg and Spittal an der Drau in Carinthia. It is part of one of the most important north–south trunk routes (''Magistrale'') in Europe and als ...

line, running from

through the Tauern Railway Tunnel to

Schwarzach im Pongau Schwarzach im Pongau is a market town in the St. Johann im Pongau District in the Austrian state of Salzburg. Geography It is located in the valley of the Salzach river, between the Hohe Tauern mountain range (Goldberg and Ankogel groups) in th ...

, at the Kolbnitz and Penk stations. It also can be reached via the parallel Mölltal Straße (B106) highway from

Lurnfeld Lurnfeld is a market town in the district of Spittal an der Drau in the Austrian state of Carinthia. The municipality consists of the two Katastralgemeinden: Möllbrücke and Pusarnitz, comprising several small villages. It is located within th ...

in the Drava valley up to

Obervellach Obervellach is a market town in the district of Spittal an der Drau District, Spittal an der Drau, in the Austrian state of Carinthia. Geography The town is situated in the valley of the Möll river, on the southern slope of the High Tauern moun ...

and

Winklern Winklern is a town in the district of Spittal an der Drau in the Austrian state of Carinthia. Geography The municipality lies at the foot of the Großglockner massif between the Schober, Goldberg, and Kreuzeck groups in the upper Möll valley T ...

Kolbnitz

The Hohe Tauern mountains are a traditional mining area, mainly for gold, silver and iron. Originally held by the Bishops of Freising, the main village Kolbnitz was first mentioned as ''Cholomunze'' in an 1124 deed. Shortly afterwards, the estates passed to the

Counts of Gorizia The County of Gorizia (, , , ), from 1365 Princely County of Gorizia, was a State of the Holy Roman Empire. Originally mediate ''Vogts'' of the Patriarchs of Aquileia, the Counts of Gorizia (''Meinhardiner'') ruled over several fiefs in the are ...

(''Meinhardiner'' dynasty) residing at Falkenstein Castle. About 1460 they were finally seized by the Austrian

House of Habsburg The House of Habsburg (; ), also known as the House of Austria, was one of the most powerful Dynasty, dynasties in the history of Europe and Western civilization. They were best known for their inbreeding and for ruling vast realms throughout ...

ruling in the

Duchy of Carinthia The Duchy of Carinthia (; ; ) was a duchy located in southern Austria and parts of northern Slovenia. It was separated from the Duchy of Bavaria in 976, and was the first newly created Imperial State after the original German stem duchies. Car ...

. In the course of a 1973 administrative reform, ''Kolbnitz an der Tauernbahn'' was merged with neighbouring Penk and

Mühldorf Mühldorf am Inn (, ; Central Bavarian: ''Muihdorf am Inn'') is a Town#Germany, town in Bavaria, Germany, and the capital of the Mühldorf (district), district Mühldorf on the river Inn (river), Inn. It is located at , and had a population of ab ...

into the municipality of Reißeck. In 1992 Mühldorf again separated to become a commune in its own right.

Danielsberg

A cup marked stone found on the cone shaped 966 m (3170 ft) Danielsberg mountain northwest of Kolbnitz denote a settlement since the days of the

Stone Age The Stone Age was a broad prehistory, prehistoric period during which Rock (geology), stone was widely used to make stone tools with an edge, a point, or a percussion surface. The period lasted for roughly 3.4 million years and ended b ...

. Further archaeological artifacts near the water well at the summit of the prominent peak indicate the existence of a

Celtic Celtic, Celtics or Keltic may refer to: Language and ethnicity *pertaining to Celts, a collection of Indo-European peoples in Europe and Anatolia **Celts (modern) *Celtic languages **Proto-Celtic language *Celtic music *Celtic nations Sports Foot ...

sacred grove and a

Roman temple Ancient Roman temples were among the most important buildings in culture of ancient Rome, Roman culture, and some of the richest buildings in Architecture of ancient Rome, Roman architecture, though only a few survive in any sort of complete ...

dedicated to

Hercules Hercules (, ) is the Roman equivalent of the Greek divine hero Heracles, son of Jupiter and the mortal Alcmena. In classical mythology, Hercules is famous for his strength and for his numerous far-ranging adventures. The Romans adapted the Gr ...

. An

Early Christian Early Christianity, otherwise called the Early Church or Paleo-Christianity, describes the historical era of the Christian religion up to the First Council of Nicaea in 325. Christianity spread from the Levant, across the Roman Empire, and be ...

chapel consecrated to prophet

Daniel Daniel commonly refers to: * Daniel (given name), a masculine given name and a surname * List of people named Daniel * List of people with surname Daniel * Daniel (biblical figure) * Book of Daniel, a biblical apocalypse, "an account of the acti ...

was probably erected at the site about 313. After Bishop Modestus had Christianized the area again in the 8th century, a new St George church was built at the summit in 1127. It was first mentioned as ''monte sancti Danielis'' in 1292 report of an unsuccessful campaign by late Count Meinhard I of Gorizia and his father-in-law Count Albert IV of Tyrol against the Carinthian duke

Bernhard von Spanheim Bernhard von Spanheim (or Sponheim; 1176 or 1181 – 4 January 1256), a member of the noble House of Sponheim, was Duke of Carinthia for 54 years from 1202 until his death. A patron of chivalry and minnesang, Bernhard's reign marked the eme ...

. The church was enlarged in 1515 and a steeple attached in 1750. Beneath the church is the ''Herkuleshof'', now a hotel, erected in 1908.

Hydropower

Reißeck has two

hydroelectric power plant Hydroelectricity, or hydroelectric power, is Electricity generation, electricity generated from hydropower (water power). Hydropower supplies 15% of the world's electricity, almost 4,210 TWh in 2023, which is more than all other Renewable energ ...

s (''Kraftwerk Kolbnitz'' and ''Kraftwerk Rottau'') run by the

Verbund Verbund AG, formerly known as Verbundgesellschaft or Österreichische Elektrizitätswirtschafts-AG, is Austria's largest electricity provider. Verbund covers around 40 percent of electricity demands in Austria and generates 90 percent thereof fro ...

power company. The water is collected in several

reservoir A reservoir (; ) is an enlarged lake behind a dam, usually built to water storage, store fresh water, often doubling for hydroelectric power generation. Reservoirs are created by controlling a watercourse that drains an existing body of wa ...

s in the Reißeck (linked with the

Kölnbrein Dam The Kölnbrein Dam is an arch dam in the Hohe Tauern range within Carinthia (state), Carinthia, Austria. It was constructed between 1971 and 1979 and at high, it is the tallest dam in Austria. The dam's reservoir serves as the primary storage in a ...

in the upper Malta valley) and Kreuzeck mountains and lead to the plant through five

penstock A penstock is a sluice or gate or intake structure that controls water flow, or an enclosed pipe that delivers water to hydro turbines and sewerage systems. The term is of Scots origin, and was inherited from the earlier technology of mill pond ...

s with a maximum altitude difference of about 1772m/5815 ft. Seven (''Kraftwerk Kolbnitz'') resp. four (''Kraftwerk Rottau'')

Pelton wheel The Pelton wheel or Pelton Turbine is an Impulse (physics), impulse-type water turbine invented by American inventor Lester Allan Pelton in the 1870s. The Pelton wheel extracts energy from the impulse of moving water, as opposed to water's dead w ...

s, generating a maximum

electric power Electric power is the rate of transfer of electrical energy within a electric circuit, circuit. Its SI unit is the watt, the general unit of power (physics), power, defined as one joule per second. Standard prefixes apply to watts as with oth ...

of 138 to 220

Megawatt The watt (symbol: W) is the unit of Power (physics), power or radiant flux in the International System of Units (SI), equal to 1 joule per second or 1 kg⋅m2⋅s−3. It is used to quantification (science), quantify the rate of Work ...

each, provide an overall annual electricity production of 1013 mio

Kilowatt hour A kilowatt-hour ( unit symbol: kW⋅h or kW h; commonly written as kWh) is a non-SI unit of energy equal to 3.6 megajoules (MJ) in SI units, which is the energy delivered by one kilowatt of power for one hour. Kilowatt-hours are a commo ...

Politics

Seats in the municipal assembly (''Gemeinderat'') as of 2015 local 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): 10 *''Freie Liste Reißeck'' (

Independent Independent or Independents may refer to: Arts, entertainment, and media Artist groups * Independents (artist group), a group of modernist painters based in Pennsylvania, United States * Independentes (English: Independents), a Portuguese artist ...

): 7 *

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): 2

Twin towns — sister cities

Reißeck is twinned with: *

Königsbronn Königsbronn is a municipality in the district of Heidenheim in Baden-Württemberg in southern Germany. Königsbronn (Koenigsbronn) as an administrative community also includes the villages of Itzelberg, Ochsenberg and Zang. It lies in the Bre ...

Germany Germany, officially the Federal Republic of Germany, is a country in Central Europe. It lies between the Baltic Sea and the North Sea to the north and the Alps to the south. Its sixteen States of Germany, constituent states have a total popu ...

Thalmässing Thalmässing is a municipality in the district of Roth, in Bavaria, Germany. Personalities * Argula von Grumbach Argula von Grumbach (; 1492 – c. 1554) was a Duchy of Bavaria, Bavarian writer and noblewoman who, starting in the early 1520 ...

References

External links

Municipal site

Hohe Tauern tourism boardReißeck power plantReißeck funicular"Kar - Music theatre for the mountain" a project of the "Österreichische Draukraftwerke" and ARBOS - Company for Music and Theatre
{{DEFAULTSORT:Reisseck Cities and towns in Spittal an der Drau District Kreuzeck group Reisseck Group