Krimml Waterfalls

The Krimml Waterfalls in the Hohe Tauern National Park are, at around 380 m total height, the highest waterfalls in Austria and among the highest in Europe. A well-made path leads up in serpentines past three cascades. The fine spray is considered especially good for the airways.

Highlights

• Highest waterfalls in Austria (around 380 m)
• Waterfall path past three cascades
• Location in the Hohe Tauern National Park
• Healing climate from fine water mist

Good to know

Practical info

Background & History

The Krimml Waterfalls belong to the highest waterfalls in Europe and plunge in three mighty stages over a rock step at the entrance of the Krimml Achental in the Salzburg Pinzgau. They are fed by the meltwater of the glaciated peaks of the Hohe Tauern, and above all in the early-summer snowmelt they unfold a thundering force, whose fine spray mist enwraps the surrounding forests in perpetual moist green and creates a lush habitat of its own.

As early as the 19th century the Austrian Alpine Club opened up an artfully laid-out path, which leads visitors up the falls in serpentines and again and again reveals new viewpoints of the roaring masses of water, an early testimony of the rising Alpine tourism. The healing spray mist, to which a beneficial effect on the respiratory tract is attributed, has earned the place the reputation of a natural health resort, and the water has long been regarded as exceptionally pure. Krimml was for a long time reachable via the narrow-gauge Pinzgau railway through the Salzach valley, and the valley beyond is today part of the Hohe Tauern National Park. In total the masses of water overcome, over several stages, a height difference of around 380 metres, which makes them one of the most tremendous natural spectacles of the Eastern Alps. Thus at the falls the raw power of the high-mountain water and the refined culture of the summer retreat combine.