The history of St. Johann im Pongau in Austria

The wind of change: the history of your holiday resort in the province of Salzburg

Today St. Johann is a popular holiday resort in the prosperous holiday region province of Salzburg in summer and winter. More than 10.000 inhabitants make St. Johann a lively cultural and economic centre of the mountain districts of the province of Salzburg.

Celts – Romans – migration of the people: early history of St. Johann

The oldest traces of settlement in St. Johann reach back more than 4 millennia. Later the Celts and Romans migrated to the St. Johann region and blended with the local inhabitants. In the 6th century Bavarian tribes expanded into the valleys of the Austrian Alps. The name ”St. Johann“ can be traced back into the year 1074.

Parish church in St. Johann: the ”Pongau Cathedral“

You can still see the traces of the changeful history – the peasant uprisings, the expulsion of the Protestants and the Napoleonic wars – at the parish church of St. Johann. Consecrated in 1329 the venerable church had seen marauding hordes, ascensions and declines, when the old parish church of St. Johann was destroyed in a fire in 1855. The ”Pongau Cathedral“ was finished in 1876. Built in a neo-Gothic style the church can be seen high above the river Salzach valley from far away.

The rise of St. Johann as a popular winter sports resort

After the destruction during the war St. Johann arose from the ashes in the 1950’s. The following decades were shaped by the economic boom, especially by the winter sports tourism trade. When the skiing region St. Johann-Wagrain-Flachau and the 3-Valley-Cable-Car opened its gates in 1978, the foundation for a modern winter sports infrastructure had been laid in St. Johann in Austria.