The Romanesque tower
Thick walls and small windows from a fortified age.
Wald1siedel — CC BY-SA 3.0 at · Holger Uwe Schmitt — CC BY-SA 4.0 · Museum Vogtturm — CC BY-SA 4.0 · BestZeller — Public domain
Four things nearby: the Schmittenhöhe summit by cable car for a view over more than thirty peaks, the Kitzsteinhorn glacier at Kaprun, reachable in summer too, the narrow Sigmund Thun gorge, and the Krimml Falls, among Europe's highest, about fifty kilometres away. The Vogtturm is the short cultural addition within the town itself.
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The Vogtturm is a stone tower in the centre of Zell am See, the oldest building in the town and among the oldest surviving in the whole region: built in the eleventh or twelfth century as a fortified residential tower, Romanesque in style with thick walls and small windows. The name means the bailiff's tower, as it was the seat of the official who governed the district on behalf of the Archbishop of Salzburg. That explains its position: near the church at a point commanding the road and the lake, because ecclesiastical authority was the political authority in these valleys for centuries. The museum inside presents the local history of Zell am See across the tower's floors: hunting and fishing on the lake, traditional dress, crafts, the tools of mountain farms, and a section on the history of winter tourism, which changed the town entirely in the twentieth century. It is small, but the best place to understand what the town was before skiing.
Thick walls and small windows from a fortified age.
The town as it was before winter tourism changed it.
Schlossplatz 1, 5700 Zell am See