02 The Emperor Franzens – Stollen
Stud Name: Until 1808 "Lower Kaiser Franz - Stollen", then "Kaiser Franz Stollen"
Emperor Franz II./I. (son of Emperor Leopold II), reigned 1792 - 1835
Struck: May 1, 1794 - together with Emperor Leopold - tunnels
Length: 884m - 1834 propulsion set
Altitude: 588 m
The Kaiser Franz tunnel was struck together with the Kaiser Leopold tunnel on May 1, 1794.
Around 1800, the Kaiser Franz tunnel had only been extended to 65 bars (77.7m).
In 1809 the Court Chamber considered building a mountain house for Emperor Franz -- Stollen, for which 4244 fl. building costs were estimated. In 1811, the Verwesamt bought the building and garden area of 300 square meters from the owner Balthasar Gratzer for 150 fl Rent of 10 fl.
In 1813 the Bergmeister Dicklberger was the first to move into the beautiful "Unteres Berghaus".
The administration was in no hurry to drive the Kaiser Franz tunnel. From 1818 to 1822, tunneling was stopped altogether because the crew was needed to secure squeezing sections, and from then until 1830 the tunnel only advanced by 7 rods (8.4 m) into the field. It was now 743 Stabel (884.0m) long and still needed 1187 Stabel (1418.5m) to reach the salt line.
It didn't come to that, in 1834 the administration stopped the construction of the tunnel altogether, with the intention of re-occupying it only after the completion of the Kaiser Leopold tunnel.
It was not until 70 years later that the Kaiser Franz tunnel was replaced by the 1st blind horizon, which had been driven through the Distler shaft in 1904.
From 1966 the "Franzberg - Haus" was used as an administration building for the ammunition depot in Perneck of the Austrian Armed Forces. During this time, a shooting range was installed in the Kaiser Franz tunnel and the tunnel was walled off after about 100m.
The "Franzberg House" is now privately owned and cannot be visited.
Sources used:
Carl Schraml "The Upper Austrian Salt Works from 1750 to the time after the French Wars", Vienna 1934
Carl Schraml "The Upper Austrian Salt Works from 1818 to the end of the Salt Office in 1850", Vienna 1936
Ischl home club "Bad Ischl home book 2004", Bad Ischl 2004
Leopold Schiendorfer "Perneck - A Village Through the Ages", Linz 2006
