Liechtensteinklamm

The Liechtensteinklamm is one of the deepest and narrowest gorges in the Alps: a cleft up to 300 metres deep that the mountain stream Großarler Ache has cut through the rock on its way out of the Großarl valley. In places the walls close in to only a few metres apart, so that the sky shows as a thin, twisting strip high overhead while the water thunders through the polished channel below. At the end of the walkway the gorge opens on a waterfall.

The gorge runs for about four kilometres, of which roughly one kilometre has been made accessible on wooden walkways fixed to the rock walls. The rock is a metamorphic limestone known locally as Klammkalk, part of the Penninic units exposed at the northern edge of the Tauern Window, a window through the higher rock layers of the Alps into deeper ones beneath. The whole cleft is the product of the stream cutting down through this rock over thousands of years. The gorge is protected as a natural monument covering about 25 hectares.

The idea of opening the gorge to visitors came from members of the local Alpine club in Pongau, who began building paths through it in 1875. Prince Johann II of Liechtenstein contributed 600 guilders to complete it. In gratitude the gorge was named after the princely house, and it was opened in 1876. It has since become the most visited natural attraction in the Pongau region of the Salzburg Land, drawing more than 200,000 people a year.

Getting there

The gorge lies just south of St. Johann im Pongau in the Austrian state of Salzburg, about 50 km south of the city of Salzburg. The nearest airport is Salzburg Airport (SZG), about 55 km away.