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Gosau is a municipality in Upper Austria in the district of Gmunden in the Traunviertel, and is located in the Gosautal, an elongated side valley of the upper Trauntal on Lake Hallstatt. The region is located in the Inner Salzkammergut, on the edge of the UNESCO World Heritage Site Hallstatt-Dachstein Salzkammergut.

Tourism and tourism

The tourist community of Gosau belongs to the Dachstein Salzkammergut vacation region (formerly known as Inner Salzkammergut) at the foot of the Dachstein (2996 m above sea level). The view of the easternmost glacier of the Alps from the Vorderer Gosausee is widely known.
Tourist development

With the regular presence of the imperial court in the Salzkammergut, tourism in the region also began from 1850. More and more mountain tourists and summer visitors discovered the Gosau Valley and the Dachstein as a vacation destination. The proximity to the imperial town of Bad Ischl brought many excursionists to Gosau in the summer. As a day trip, people drove to the inn at the Gosauschmied to eat a "Schwarzreiter" (tasty, but now extinct edible fish from the Gosausee) or to be carried by armchair porters to the Zwieselalm.

Mountain tourism gained massive importance in the first third of the 20th century. Pioneers like Friedrich Simony drew the attention of the mainly urban mountain movement of alpine clubs to the Dachstein. The elaborate construction of the Adamek Hut by the Vienna Section Austria of the Austrian Alpine Club in 1907 on the path from Gosau to the Dachstein is an expression of the spirit of optimism at that time. The beginnings of ski tourism took hold of Gosau in the 1920s, and at times so many ski tourers were on the move that huts on the Zwieselalm and also the Adamekhütte remained open throughout the winter. Last but not least, it was the climbers who discovered Gosau and the easy access to the Dachstein and the limestone peaks of the Gosaukamm. The most famous in the early years was Paul Preuß, who after many first ascents in the Gosaukamm fell fatally on the Mandlkogel in 1913.