European
Capital of Culture
Salzkammergut
2024
2024 - the year of the European Capital of Culture Bad Ischl Salzkammergut
The Salzkammergut is rich in exciting stories, places and people. A multi-layered region whose impressive history began 7,000 years ago with salt mining in Hallstatt and has made history in many respects ever since. In 2024, the Salzkammergut, with Bad Ischl as its banner city, held the title of European Capital of Culture. For the first time in history, it took place in the inner Alpine region. Bad Ischl Salzkammergut 2024 brought the diversity of historically rooted and contemporary art and culture to the fore in 23 communities.
At the end of November, there was a big celebration in Laakrichen and Gmunden to mark the end of the cultural year.
The programme lines
The programme of the European Capital of Culture Salzkammergut 2024 establishes a balance between these areas of tension in 4 focal points and shows the possibilities for actively shaping our future with a variety of projects.
In its 4 programme lines
MACHT UND TRADITION
KULTURIM FLUSS
SHARING SALZKAMMERGUT - The Art of Travelling and
GLOBALOKAL - Building The New
the European Capital of Culture addresses important topics of our region, Europe and the world, provides new impetus for the future, brings the diversity of historically rooted and contemporary art and culture to the fore and networks the region internationally.
Power & Tradition
Power & Tradition
An open and active culture of remembrance without blinkers is a necessity in order to learn lessons from the past for a careful and forward-looking approach to our present and future. The cultivation of tradition is alive and strong in the Salzkammergut. It encompasses a broad spectrum ranging from music, crafts, customs, theatre and literature to pub culture. In order to understand the traditions, however, we also need to take a differentiated look at how this development came about: what power relations have shaped this region and given rise to new and different behaviours and customs?
Culture in motion
Culture in motion
The need for a clear cultural identity seems to be comprehensible in a world where everything is globally dependent upon each other. But is this so clearly demonstrable? The French philosopher François Jullien states that the nature of culture is change. Customs, traditions or a shared language are seen as resources that are generally available to all and which can be used in a wide variety of ways.
Sharing Salzkammergut
Sharing Salzkammergut
Tourism, grown out of the summer holidaymaking tradition in this extraordinary Alpine region, which began in the 19th century, is one of the most important lifelines in the Salzkammergut region, the place yearned for by many travelers.
Globalocal
Globalocal
Shaping the rural Alpine region in such a manner that the usual north-south divide is compensated for and supplemented, that the labor market is enriched with creative potential, that works against the emigration of young, well-educated people in order to make a life in the countryside possiblewhile still being networked and able to work globally. This means expanding mobility and digitalization, developing strategies to once again make agriculture possible as a livelihood, combine land use planning and the development of a reasonable construction culture, creating spaces for education and art, striving for sustainability in all areas within the Salzkammergut region as well as beyond. In GLOBALOCAL – BUILDING THE NEW, the focus has been placed on thinking about the world of tomorrow and developing strategies for action as well as dealing with the points of tension between the generations. After all, it is especially the young people who are affected by the careless use of resources; this is why young people are the central group being addressed when it comes to recognizing interim spaces for promoting the cultural and creative diversity in the rural Alpine area of the Salzkammergut region and creating the prospect of a life that is attractive for young and old alike.
