There’s no direct bus nor train from Zell to Lienz. I left Zell at 9:30 am on July 18 by bus for Mittersill, about 25 km to the east. From Mittersill, there is only a bus connection to Lienz in East Tyrol running north to south through the Felbertauern road tunnel of 5.3 km long at an elevation of about 1630 m within the Hohe Tauern mountain range. In the 14th century, traders carried salt, ice, and copper from north to south over the Felbertauern Pass (2481m) to northeastern Italy. Goods such as wine, velvet, and silks were brought over the pass from south to present day Austria and Germany. Through the bus window, I enjoyed viewing quiet and scenic mountain valley landscapes, while imagining those good-old days’ adventurers. On the middle of the trip, the bus stopped at Matrei, well known for an access point to the Großvenediger peak (3,657 m), the 2nd highest in Austria.
It was just 15 minutes before noon that I arrived at the Lienz train station.
<Lienz, a medieval town>
From the station I got a taxi to go to 'Goldner Stern', a pension for my three days stay in this town. The taxi driver looked like a cheerful Italian, who listened to Mozart violin concerto while driving. I've never seen before a taxi driver who indulged himself in listening to classical music in his car. After check-in, I walked toward the city center and looked for an Italian restaurant. I felt like eating spaghetti here, not Austrian beef cuisine.
Geographically Lienz is lying 40 km north from the boarder with Italy and has an atmosphere of a small medieval town with the population of less than 12k. The streets and the city markets lured me to think of its glorious days during 13 to 15 centuries. I instantaneously loved this kind of medieval atmosphere.
For mountain hikers, Lienz represents one of the alpinist’s holy Meccas, which is surrounded by the Hohe Tauern mountain range in the north and the Dolomites in the south stretching to the northern Italian Alps. This town provides a good access to varieties of spectacular landscapes.
History of Lienz
Lienz first appeared in history under the name of Luenzina, in a deed issued by the Bishop of Brixen about 1030 when it, together with the neighboring area, belonged to the Patriarchate of Aquileia, an episcopal see in northeastern Italy, at the era of the Holy Roman Empire. Afterwards it was purchased by the Counts of Gorizia, who were originally officials in the Patriarchate of Aquileia, and they chose Lienz as their residence. They started to reign the Country of Gorizia from 1127. This town flourished as a marketplace on the trade route from Venzone in Italy to Salzburg and received city rights in 1242. In 1278 the Counts completed the castle Schloss Bruck, which served as their local seat until 1500, when the Austrian imperial House of Hapsburg succeeded all its estate.
<The views from the castle Schloss Bruck>
Schloss Bruck
After strolling around the city center, I headed for the castle as my first must-see here, which was in the walking distance from the city center. This castle has been well preserved and is now used as a city museum, where they exhibited the works by Albin Egger-Lienz (1868–1926) when I visited. Ascending old wooden stairs in the tower, I could get a whole picture of the city.
<on the way to the castle> <the entrance>
Next morning, it was a fine and restful Sunday, so after breakfast I strolled out across the river Isel to the nearby St. Andrew’s Parish Church. This church was built in 1450 on the Romanesque foundations with its porch and crypt constructed in 1204. The area including St. Andrew was Christianized from Aquileria in north-east Italy in the 4th century. I arrived there before their Sunday service began. A middle-aged woman came from nowhere and humbly gave a small bouquet of flowers to the photo of a little girl at a kind of a family vault on the church wall, while her dog was quietly waiting. This was touching.
Gradually more and more people came to the church for attending to a Sunday service, whom I followed and sat on a wooden row seat at the back. During the service, although I could not understand what the priest and his assistants were saying in German, but I could guess fairly well what was going on, because I had experiences to attend to such christian church services while I was in elementary school in Japan more than 60 years ago. When people sang a hymn, I stood as well as other attendees and also made a donation. When the service over, somebody sitting nest to me offered his hand to shake mines. I am a Buddhist, but respect people's religious minds to seek for peace and happiness in this troublesome world. Hearing people hymning in tune with the 17 century-made pipe-organ, I thought that eventually we were the same human beings no matter what a different religious background we might have.
Zettersfeld
Returning to the pension, I was wondering how I should spend the afternoon as I had no plan for that Sunday. I asked the mistress of a pension for some advice in exploring the local nature or culture that Lienz has to offer. Thanks to her advise, I headed for Zettersfeld which was situated north of the town and truly a gateway to the Hohe Tauern National park. It took around 40 minutes by walking to reach the cable car station.
The cable car was not operated with nobody lining up in front of its gate when I reached. It was a lunch break time. I was a first passenger when it resumed a operation at 13 pm and a cable car lifted me very smoothly to the summit station at 1,800 m high through the alpine pastures spread under my feet.
With no definite plan I headed toward the Neualplseen lakes, the most popular site in the area, which was located between the peaks of Schleinitz (2,905m) and Goiselemandl (2,433m). I enjoyed in viewing the Lienz Dolomite range standing solemnly to the south in Italy. But at around 15 pm on the way, it started to rain and people warned me that the cable car might stop operation earlier before 4 pm. So I decided to return back. I regret that I had not reserved an extra day for hiking in Zettersfeld.
(to be continued; next "Kals")
Related blogs are;
Zell Am See - A senior hiker on Austrian Alps (2) posted on Sep. 9, 2015
Mt. Schafberg - A senior hiker on Austrian Alps (1) posted on Aug. 4, 2015
