Schladming Village
Schladming is a small, historic mining town, dating back to late medieval times of the early 14th century in the heart of the Schladming-Dachstein-Tauern-Region in Styria, one of Austria’s largest provinces.The attractive town centre, with its tempting tea rooms, is close to Salzburg, to which day trip excursions can be easily arranged. Six hundred years ago, then a walled town, Schladming was known principally for its rich silver, lead, and copper ore deposits. Most of the town had to be rebuilt around 1525 after a revolt by miners and peasants, which led to most of the buildings being burned to the ground. This led to an inevitable decline in the mining industry.
Schladming, which hosted the World Championships in 1982, is also linked with one of the world’s greatest skiing icons. It was here, three days before Christmas in 1973, on the difficult Planai course, that the legendary Franz Klammer won the first of his 25 World Cup downhill victories – a record to this day. More than a quarter of a century later, Schladming was also the location where Austria’s more recent skiing phenomenon, Hermann Maier, started his extraordinary come-back to top-flight racing after almost losing a leg in a road accident in 2001.
Over the years many of the Austrian ski team, as well as Britain’s Emma Carrick-Anderson and Johnny Moulder-Brown have attended Schladming’s celebrated Handelsschule ski academy. Schladming was also once the haunt of the young Arnold Schwarzenegger, who was born nearby.