Selzthal :: Fotopic.Net

Selzthal

12th February 2005

The small Austrian town of Selzthal is a large railway junction, with most people arriving here to change trains. The town has some interesting buildings, but the main focus is the railway yard, workshops, and station.
The history of Selzthal begins with the foundation in 1074 of Admont Abbey, and the area was named "Ediltscach", marking the river confluence here. The name itself is derived from "sedlce ", settlement village, or "sedlo ", saddle, both from the Slavic.
Since the swampy Talboden could not support colonization, Bavarian incomers started to clear the hillsides of the Dürrenschöberl. By the 13th Century there were 21 farmsteads in the area, and this number remained virtually unchanged until the 18th Century.
The area was over-run in 1480 by Turkish invaders, and surviving records show that one Anna Paltauf was drowned by the villagers in 1540 being an alleged witch.
By 1770, when Empress Maria Theresia indroduced a Census to aid army conscription, the "Werbbezirke and Konskriptionsgemeindens", there were 27 houses in the community, now called "Zelzthal".
In 1872 the Kronprinz-Rudolf-Bahn through the Gesäuse was opened between Selzthal and Weyer, and the area started to assume its' present-day form. The number of people rose dramatically with the coming of the railway, leading to a school opening in 1874, and in 1892 a Jesuit Church was erected. The name of the vilage was changed officially in 1903 to "Selzthal", and with the completion of the line to Linz through the Bosruck tunnel in 1912, traffic increased again, forcing the reconstruction of the station to its' present island platform arrangement. The parish church was erected in 1914.
The area became a target in the Second World War, the most serious on Easter Sunday 1945, when 70 people, mainly civilians, were killed.
The railway line to Schladming was electrified in 1959, with the Gesäusestrecke being electrified in1970, and more recently the Zentralstellwerke (signal box) was completed, upgrading the railway infrastructure in the the area.
Source:
Literature: Gerhard Riedl, Hermann Trattner and Franz Wohlgemuth "History of the Parish of Gaishorn and the Paltentales"

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