Grottenbahn am Pöstlingberg

Useful Information

Location:	Am Pöstlingberg 16, 4040 Linz. (48.3241927, 14.2564233)
Open:	MAR to MAY daily 10-17. JUN to AUG daily 10-18. SEP to NOV daily 10-17. DEC Sun, 08-DEC, 24-DEC 10-15. [2024]
Fee:	Adults EUR 6.40, Children (2-15) EUR 3.80, Children (0-1) free, Family (2+2) EUR 17.20. Groups (10+): Adults EUR 5.10, Children (2-15) EUR 3. [2024]
Classification:	Casemate Cave Replica Cave and Karst Museum
Light:	Incandescent
Dimension:
Guided tours:	self guided
Photography:	allowed
Accessibility:	no
Bibliography:	Christian Hager (1996): 90 Jahre Linzer Grottenbahn in: Oberösterreichische Heimatblätter 50 (1996) 3, S. 302–312. pdf
Address:	Grottenbahn, Am Pöstlingberg 16, 4040 Linz, Tel: +43-732-3400-7506. E-mail:
As far as we know this information was accurate when it was published (see years in brackets), but may have changed since then. Please check rates and details directly with the companies in question if you need more recent info.

History

1742 to 1747	Pöstlingbergkirche built.
1897	Tramway- und Elektrizitätsgesellschaft Linz-Urfahr (TEG) acquires Fort Pöstlingberg.
1898	Pöstlingbergbahn opened.
06-AUG-1906	Grottenbahn opened to the public.
1911	living olms exhibited in the basement.
01-MAY-1912	Erstes Österreichisches Museum für Höhlenkunde eröffnet.
1917 to 1919	Kriegsmuseum (War Museum) created by the Kriegsfürsorgeamt.
1936	Landscape painter Ludwig Haase paints a replica of Linz's medieval main square on canvas.
08-JAN-1945	heavily damaged by a bomb during an air raid.
01-MAY-1948	reopened after the renovation by sculptor Friederike Stolz.
1950	replica of the main square of Linz around 1900 in the basement opened to the public.

Description

Grottenbahn (grotto railway) is a strange name, and the site is even stranger, it is a railway through fairy tales for children. In 1897, the Tramway- und Elektrizitätsgesellschaft Linz-Urfahr (TEG) acquired Fort Pöstlingberg, which was built in the 1830s and was part of the Maximilian fortifications. It offered a great view on the city Linz, the Danube, and the surrounding area. After all that's the reason why the fortification was built here. The mountain station of the Pöstlingberg railway was then set up in one of the fortification towers. So this hill with the bombastic name Pöstlingberg (Postman Mountain) became a sort of theme park. The abandoned military fortification was owned by a public transport company and was accessible by tramway. Soon restaurants were opened, galleries and museums, as well as cafés. But the site was also a pilgrimage destination, the Wallfahrtsbasilika Sieben Schmerzen Mariae aka Pöstlingbergkirche was located in the middle of the fort, on the highest point of the Pöstlingberg 539 m asl.

The company was specialized on electric tramways, and so when they planned a fairy tale ride, they built an underground train in the catacombs of the fortification below the Beatrix tower. This train was dubbed Grottenbahn (grotto railway), and had a dragon head. One ride lasted four laps, with the grotto being illuminated in different colors for the first three laps, while the final lap was completely dark and a banner with the message “No kissing” was lit up. We are not sure if this is actually intended for children.

The name of the tram, Grottenbahn, is quite similar to the name Grottenolm, which is the german name for the Biology olm (Proteus anguinus). Why exactly they exhibited living olms in the basement is unclear, but we guess the similar name helped the decision. The Verein für Höhlenkunde in Österreich (Association for speleology in Austria) created its Upper Austria branch in 1910 in Linz. They were quite active, explored caves and were quite active in public relations. The olms were the idea of the famous speleologist Georg Lahner, who was the head of this association and lived in Linz. This exhibition was expanded into the Erstes Österreichisches Museum für Höhlenkunde (First Austrian Museum of Speleology) which was opened only a year later. It was not only the first Austrian cave museum, it was the first cave museum in the world. Unfortunately, the high humidity in the basement was not good for the exhibits, and so the museum was relocated into the Francisco-Carolinum in 1915. As a result, it was now only a part of a bigger museum, and at some point it simply vanished.

The first train was destroyed in World War II by a bomb during an air raid. The current Grottenbahn was designed by sculptor Friederike Stolz right after the war. She created the numerous displays with the dwarfes. Her father was the zoologist Bernhard Stolz, and his stuffed animals were used in the fairy tale scenes in the basement.

To get to this mountain, you should definitely take tramway line 50 from Linz. One stop is the Linz Zoo, halfway. It is the steepest adhesion track in Europe, the line is named Bergbahn or Pöstlingbergbahn. It was engineer Josef Urbanski who first planned a steam-powered rack railroad up the Pöstlingberg around 1891. But the company was specialized in electric trams, and so they asked for an electrically powered adhesion track, which was finally realized.