Zell am Ziller

Zell lies in the Ziller valley, where a route over the Gerlos Pass leads towards Salzburg. Monks established a cell here in the early Middle Ages, and the parish of Zell appears in a Salzburg charter of 1188. St John's hospital, founded the previous year, received pilgrims and other travellers. The archbishops of Salzburg held extensive lands in the valley, and the route over the pass connected their possessions with Salzburg itself.

Gold discoveries on the Hainzenberg in the sixteenth century increased Zell's importance. In 1592 the administration of Salzburg's court in the Ziller valley moved to the settlement. During the Tyrolean uprising, Bavarian troops plundered Zell on 6 November 1809. After the Napoleonic wars the valley came under Austrian rule, and Emperor Francis I received the inhabitants' homage here in 1816.