Vorderwaldberg is a

dispersed settlement A dispersed settlement, also known as a scattered settlement, is one of the main types of settlement patterns used by landscape historians to classify rural settlements found in England and other parts of the world. Typically, there are a num ...

in the Oberpinzgau, the upper

Salzach The Salzach (Austrian: �saltsax ) is a river in Austria and Germany. It is in length and is a right tributary of the Inn (river), Inn, which eventually joins the Danube. Its drainage basin of comprises large parts of the Northern Limeston ...

valley and the district of Zell am See/Pinzgau, and also a village in the municipality of

Wald im Pinzgau Wald im Pinzgau is a municipality in the district of Zell am See (Pinzgau region), in the state of Salzburg in Austria. Municipal divisions The villages in the municipality, apart from Wald, are (further up the valley) Hinterwaldberg, Königslei ...

, on the southern edge of the

Kitzbühel Alps The Kitzbühel Alps ( or ''Kitzbühler Alpen'') are a mountain range of the Central Eastern Alps surrounding the town of Kitzbühel in Tyrol, Austria. Geologically they are part of the western slate zone ( greywacke zone). Location Two-thirds of ...

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

The settlement, which has about 90 inhabitants and 30 houses, lies up the valley from Wald im Salzachtal, on the southern slopes of the Salzach valley, the ''Vorderwaldberg'', at an altitude between on the Old Gerlos Road (''Alten Gerlosstraße'', the L 133). The homesteads (''Einöden'') of ''Bachbauer'' and ''Watschbauer'', and several other

farmstead A farmstead refers to the buildings and service areas associated with a farm. It consists of a house belonging to a farm along with the surrounding buildings. The characteristics of a specific farmstead reflect the local landscape, which provides ...

s belong to the village that extends for about in an east–west direction.

History

Vorderwaldberg lies on the old mule track (''Saumpfad'') from

Mittersill Mittersill (; ) is a city in the federal state of Salzburg, Austria, in the Pinzgau region of the Alps. It is located on the Salzach River. It has a population of 5,408 as of 2011. Geography Mittersill lies approximately 25 km to the west o ...

as a trading hub on the route over the

Gerlos Pass Gerlos Pass (elevation ) is a mountain pass in the Austrian Alps between the Oberpinzgau region in the state of Salzburg and the Zillertal valley in Tyrol. The old road leads from Wald im Pinzgau to Gerlos in the Zillertal valley. It is closed to ...

(Pinzgauer Höhe) to

Zell am Ziller Zell am Ziller is a municipality in the Schwaz district in the Austrian state of Tyrol. The name derives from the river Ziller. Climate Population Facilities The Zillertal Arena was formed in 2000 from a merger of the ski area A ski area ...

. It was upgraded into a cart track in 1631. In 1962 the new Gerlos Alpine Road (''Gerlos Alpenstraße'') via Krimml (today part of the B 165 Mittersill – Hainzenberg) was opened, that had been planned by graduate engineer

Franz Wallack Franz Friedrich Wallack (24 August 1887 – 31 October 1966) was an Austrian civil engineer. He mainly designed and built mountain pass roads, in particular the Grossglockner High Alpine Road across the High Tauern range between Salzburg and Carint ...

, the builder of the Großglockner High Alpine Road (''Großglockner Hochalpenstraße''). Consequently the Old Gerlos Road (''Alte Gerlosstraße'', today the L 133) lost its importance.

Tourism and places of interest

The Sixt Chapel (''Sixtkapelle'') on the ''Sonnberg'', below the Vorderwaldberg, on the Old Gerlos Road (). Below the Sixtus Chapel lies the Augentrost Chapel (''Augentrostkapelle'') which is also worth a visit. The Arno Trail (''Arnoweg'') runs through this village, from Hinterwaldberg and

Lahn The Lahn () is a , right (or eastern) tributary of the Rhine in Germany. Its course passes through the States of Germany, federal states of North Rhine-Westphalia (23.0 km), Hesse (165.6 km), and Rhineland-Palatinate (57.0 km). ...

, as a climb to the ''

Pinzgauer Spaziergang The Pinzgau Ridgeway ( or ''Pinzgauer Höhenweg'') is a roughly 25 kilometre long ridgeway (road), ridgeway in the Kitzbühel Alps in the Austrian federal state of Salzburg (Bundesland), Salzburg. Location and route The ridgeway runs parall ...

''.

References

; Sources {{Geographic location , title = , Northwest = , North = , Northeast = , West =

, Center = Vorderwaldberg , East = Rosental (Neukirchen) , Southwest = , South =

Wald __NOTOC__ Wald is the German word for forest. Surname * Wald (surname) Places Austria * Wald am Schoberpass, in Styria * Wald im Pinzgau, in Salzburger Land Germany * Wald, Baden-Württemberg * Wald, Upper Palatinate, in the district of Cham, ...

, Southeast = Wald im Pinzgau Zell am See District Kitzbühel Alps