Zell am See

Zell stands beside its lake in the Pinzgau, at a meeting of routes through the Salzach and Saalach valleys and across the Alps. A monastic cell called Cella in Bisontio was recorded here in 788–790 and gave the settlement its name. Zell gained market privileges in the fourteenth century and served as a centre of local justice under the archbishops of Salzburg.

Innkeepers, muleteers and merchants carried Salzburg salt south and brought back wine, oil and other goods. During the Peasants' War, Zell submitted to the Swabian League's troops before a battle by the lake in 1526. Mines in the surrounding hills produced copper, iron sulphides and silver-bearing lead. In 1816 Zell passed with Salzburg to the Austrian crown, after years of upheaval during the French wars.