Traunreiter Mosaic

The artist Maria Buchböck (10 December 1925 – 15 August 2015) created this mosaic on the house at Pfarrgasse 4 in 1974. It depicts the so-called Traunreiter. The artistic work was donated by Anton Artweger, the owner of the house at the time.

In the 16th century, in order to save wood for the construction of the Zillen wooden boats, they introduced a counter-maneuver to return the boats while going upstream.

The so-called Traunreiter (horse farmers) brought the salt boats from Ebensee back upstream via the Traun River with the help of their heavy horses. The horses walked on the towpaths, and the boats were harnessed to the horses with strong ropes. A person called "Nauferg" had to ensure that the boats maintained the direction of travel. The towpath ran on the left shore of the Traun as far as Ischl. This is where the loaded boats of the Ischl salt manufacturers docked, loaded with grain, wine and other goods. Their favourite inn was the "Zum Goldenen Schiff" inn. The hotel still has the same name today.

The boats from Hallstatt docked on the right shore of the Traun, in the part of the town called Gries. The horse farmers from Goisern tied up their horses at "Zum Schwarzen Adler" inn (Black Eagle inn at Grazerstrasse 10). They stayed there overnight, and continued on their way to Steeg on Lake Hallstatt the next morning.

Maria Buchböck was a technical draughtswoman, a graduate of the University of Applied Arts Vienna and a painter.

She was a highly sought-after watercolorist in Bad Ischl with a sense of pretty detail. But she also created mosaics. For example, in 1972, she made a mosaic in the  elementary school in Pfandl.