The “Tauern Pass Routes Over the Alps” exhibition is a special show on the Grossglockner High Alpine Road.

The themes of the “Tauern Pass Routes Over the Alps” exhibition

The Alps were never an insurmountable hindrance, but they did form a barrier between the north and the south. Central Europe was to a large extent, and over a long period, cut off from the cultural developments of the Mediterranean region by the elongated bow of the Alps. But for the inhabitants of the inner Alps the main alpine crest did not represent a borderline. Finds are witness of intensive contact between the peoples on both sides of the Tauern from the Early Stone Age about 5,000 years ago.

The Basis: rocks – the building elements of the mountains

The mountains are of a massive geological construction, which reach to depths of up to 70 kilometres below the surface of the earth. They comprise differing types of rock, and their deposit and composition relate, in part, to several hundred millions of years of early history.
Treasures of the Mountains: minerals and ores

The Alps as a habitat for prehistoric humanity.

People had already pushed forward into the regions of the Alps – during warmer intermediate phases of the Ice Age – more than a hundred-thousand years ago.

Celtic Pack-animal Routes Over the Alps

The first heyday of trade traffic over the alpine passes took place during the Early Iron Age, during which the Celts settled in the eastern Alps. Mineral resources – gold, silver, iron, salt and rock crystal were delivered in exchange for handicrafts from the Mediterranean region.

Roman Pass Routes

The building of roads for wheeled traffic over the Alps began after the alpine region became a part of the Roman Empire (15 B.C.).
The pack-animal routes over the high Tauern passes thus lost their importance; only towards the end of the Roman occupation, and with the dilapidation of the roads, were they again used more intensively.

Pack-animal Trade Over the Alpine Passes

Trade was only undertaken with pack-animals during the Middle Ages; only in the modern age were roads for wheeled traffic built over the Alps. The Hochtor was the most important crossing point. Around 1500, a total weight of about 1,000 tons of freight was transported here each year.

The Modern Pass Routes

Ever-increasing human mobility also required the constant extension of the north-south traffic routes over and through the Tauern.

Development of Mining

When mining began – in the late part of the Early Stone Age (400 B.C.) – only the weathered ore close to the surface was won. Later, with increasing demands and better tools, the veins of ore were followed more and more deeply into the mountains.

Conquest of the Landscape

Research and Tourism in the Alps
Raw materials and the search for food was originally the only motivation to enter the otherwise feared high-mountain regions.
The Tauern today are to the same extent a recuperation area, the centre of tourist activities and the target of numerous research projects.

Nature Protection and the National Park

The richness of mineral resources made the alpine landscape a coveted, and sometimes fought-over, region. The main objectives have changed today; the landscape riches are no longer the deposits, but the landscapes – nature – themselves. 
Conservation areas and nature parks were made in the area of the main crest of the eastern Alps. The Hohe Tauern National Park is by far the most important.