The earliest written record of the name Alpbach comes from 1150,
although human settlement is known to have begun there before and around
the year 1000, and a bronze axe found at Steinberger Joch (the pass
leading to the Ziller Valley) in 1860 suggests that the route was
already in use in the Hallstatt period.
Christianity was first
brought to the region in the 7th and 8th centuries by Irish and Scottish
monks, and the patron saint of the parish church is in fact St. Oswald,
a former King of Northumbria.
At the beginning of the 15th century,
deposits of copper and silver were discovered on the Gratlspitz and
Schatzberg and in the Luegergraben. At the time, the Fugger merchant
family from Augsburg had control over mining operations in Schwaz and
Kitzbühel, and they extended their activities to include the Alpbach
valley. The Böglerhof housed the Fugger offices and was also seat of the
Mining Court. In those days, Alpbach already had two inns, the
Böglerhof and the Jakober Inn, where the men of the village would go to
drink spirits, such as schnapps. By the middle of the 19th century,
productivity at the mines had declined to the stage where they had to be
closed.
Vorder-Unterberg Farm, which was built in 1636-1638 by local
carpenters and was lived in until 1952, stands at the edge of the
forest above the little church in Inneralpbach. Today the building is a
mountain farming museum, and the exhibits include the old parlour,
chapel, a combined kitchen and smokehouse, and over 800 artefacts of
daily life and work.
The road leading up the valley to Alpbach was
not built until 1926, and the isolated location of the village led to
the development of a distinctive style of architecture and furnishings,
and also enabled the local folk traditions to be preserved for much
longer than in most of the valleys of the Tyrol.
Tourists first began
arriving in Alpbach at the beginning of the
