Landeck

Landeck occupies a junction in the upper Inn valley, where the route from Italy over the Reschen Pass continues north towards the Fern Pass. The Roman Via Claudia Augusta passed through the basin, where a village and a travellers' station stood. In the Middle Ages the Inn separated the settlements of Perfuchs and Angedair, while castles watched the roads. The counts of Tyrol united the surrounding judicial districts in the thirteenth century, and Landeck Castle became a centre of their authority.

The Arlberg route to the west was for centuries a difficult path for pack animals. In 1782 Emperor Joseph II ordered a road over the pass, later enlarged in the early nineteenth century. The Napoleonic wars briefly altered the valley's political allegiance: Landeck passed to Bavaria in 1806 before returning to Austria in 1814. Its position remained tied to the roads converging in the narrow mountain basin.