History

Originally the way over the mountain pass “Hochtor” was a mule track, which was already used in the Hallstatt time, as evidenced by the finds of brooches, jewelry, Celtic silver coins and bronze statuettes from the 1st and 2nd centuries BC. It appears that there were several shrines of gods along the ridgeline of the pass. Later on it was a Roman road, connecting the southern parts of the empire with the northern parts.
In the 17th century it was the third most important Alpine crossing next to “Brennerpass” und Radstätter Tauerpass” in Austria. At the time of the Austro-Hungarian monarchy, the Glockner area was the emperor’s hunting ground, which is why accommodation was built on the south side in the Gamsgrube in 1834 and the Glocknerhaus in 1875. In 1908 a road to the Glocknerhaus was built, which was later incorporated into the construction of the Glocknerstrasse. Originally the way between Heiligenblut and Glocknerhaus was named Empress Elisabeth road.
Already 1924 there exsited plans to construct a private toll road between Heiligenblut and Ferleiten and additionally mountain hotels.
Engineer Franz Wallack (1887-1966) planed the route, a 3 metre gravel road with overtaking points, and several hotels, one of them the Berggasthaus Wallackhaus (still exists), within a few weeks, but the project was not realized due to lack of money, even though it was of particular importance because after South Tyrol was eliminated by the Peace Treaty of St. Germain, there was no direct connection via the main Alpine chain from Upper Carinthia and East Tyrol to North Tyrol. In 1930, as part of the planned construction of AEG Berlin’s Tauern power plant project, the Salzburg state governor Franz Rehrl, a passionate driver whose personal goal was the construction of the Glocknerstrasse, managed to combine this with the construction of the Glocknerstrasse and thus win a shareholder for the “Großglockner Hochalpenstraßen Aktiengesellschaft”. Besides that, the project gave work to 3200 people in a time, where unemployment reached 26% after the catastrophic economic results of losing the First World War and a devastating inflation. On the 30th August 1930 the construction of the road, with a width of 6 metres “to serve the needs of the excessive international traffic”, began with a symbolic explosive shot in Ferleiten. In 1931, AEG Berlin left the stock corporation and the building could only be completed through a special financing law. End of 1932 the northern part and the Glacier road to the “Pasterze” (Glacier) was ceremoniously opened. In March 1933 the authoritarian Dollfuß government came to power and pushed for road expansion in Austria, from which the Glocknerstrasse also benefited. By 1935, 14% of road construction expenditure was invested in the expansion and completion of the Glocknerstrasse.
On September 22nd 1934 the Salzburg state governor Franz Rehrl and engineer Franz Wallack crossed the Großglockner High Alpine Road still on the road substructure in a special designed Steyer 100 car. On August 3rd 1935 the Großglockner High Alpine Raod was opened and one day later Austria’s big mountain prize for automobiles and motorcycles took place. The southern access road between Dölsach and Heiligenblut was expanded into a modern motorway as a job creation measure from 1937 on.
Withe the opening of the Felbertauern Straße 1967, another toll raod, and the Tauern motorway 1975 the character of the road changed – from the only transalpine road in this area to an excursion road. The increasing numbers of visitors required constant expansion and modernisation of the road form 7,5 metres to 15 metres.
In 2011 an automobile exhibition “125 years of automobile” was opened in the visitor centre at Emperor-Franz-Josefs-Height and is the highest automobile museum in the world.
Nowadays the road no longer has any significance as a transit route, but as a tourist attraction it is one of Austria’s great adventure routes.
European car manufacturers like to use the road as a test track for vehicles’ climbing ability and braking performance under realistic and extreme conditions.

Course

The Großglockner High Alpine Road is 47,8 km long and follows the never realised project of the Großglockner Railway from 1889. The road starts in “Bruck an der Glocknerstraße” in the Salzach valley and ends in Heiligenblut in the Mölltal (valley of Möll). In the Fuscher valley the raod passes the village “Fusch an der Glocknerstraße” and reaches the northern tollstation Ferleiten (1151m above see level). Numerous harpin curves leads to “Piffkar” (1633 m) and via block heap “Hexenküche” to the “Oberes Nassfeld” (2268 m) and “Fuscher Törl”(2468 m). A panoramic road to “Edelweißspitze” viewpoint (2571 m) branches off here (only for cars). After this first pass it goes down to “Fuscher Lacke (lake)” (2261 m) and trought the tunnel “Mittertörl” (2375 m). Another tunnel “Hochtor” (2576 m) cross the Salzburg / Carinthian border and marks the watershed Salzach (Inn) / Drau. Another panoramic road branches off here to the Emperor Franz-Josef Höhe (2369 m) and visitor centre, a popular overlook, which was named after a visit by Emperor Franz Josef I and Empress Elisabeth in 1856, the Glacier Pasterze and the Mountain Großglockner (3798 m – highest mountain in Austria). The Großglockner High Alpine Road runs form Hochtor through the Möll valley to the village Heiligenblut.

Snow Clearing

Today the Großglockner High Alpine Road is a private toll road, which is closed in winter according to the weather conditions from end of Oktober to the beginning of May. Normally there are about 10 or even more meters of snow on the road. The record was 25 meter in the jear 1953. In the years 1936 and 1937 350 men shovelled around 500 000 – 700 000 cubic meters of snow within 70 days to clear at least one lane of the road. Since 1953 five special snow removal machines, called Wallack rotary plows, built in Voest steelworks, and about 12 workers are cleaning the road and the parking places in around 14 – 25 days. The cleaning starts from both sides (from noth and south) and often it is necessary the blow away potential avalanches. The 5 special rotary plows “Wallack system”, constructed by the engineer Franz Wallack and his team, who planned the road 1924, carrie the names form the co-constructor “Paul”, “Ander”, Oskar”, “Jörgen” and “Eisbändiger = icebender” and still are in use today. The macines have three diesel engines and are able to remove 9000 cubic meters of snow per hour. Sometimes the machines have to drive up to ten times the same track to clear the road, as they remove the snow, up to 12 meters high, in layers. The machines are specially constructed, that the pavement is not damaged.

Snow Clearing 2024

Because of the warm spring weather the snow clearing this year started already on 8th of April and was finished on 27th of April.

Sport

Since the opening of the road, it is used for several sport events, for example: Giro d`Italia in 1971 and 2011, Austrian Bycicle Race (Österreich Radrundfahrt), Austrian Around Race (every Year in August), Peakbreak (2008 – 2027), Glocknerman