Gmundner Keramik…now that’s a proper souvenir!

Have you ever noticed that souvenir shopping is as woven into the fabric of travel as buying a plane ticket or making a hotel reservation? When we explore the world over, we inevitably want to take home a little “memento” to remind us of our excursion. Storefronts in cities far and wide beckon tourists through their doors with tempting trinkets and Salzburg is no different. As you stroll down the Getreidegasse (the main shopping street of old town) you will be bombarded with wooden replicas of Mozart dangling on springs and t-shirts that yodel with the press of a button.

If you want to take home a true Austrian souvenir however, stop into the Gmundner Keramik at Getreidegasse 35 and take your pick of piece of Austrian history.

It was early in the 17th century that ceramic artists first started to flock to the small town of Gmunden 75 kilometers from Salzburg. Sitting at the edge of Lake Traunsee, the artists found inspiration in the natural beauty of upper Austria and before long, Gmunden was the heart of Austrian ceramic world. It was over 350 years ago that the now famous Grüngeflammt pattern first graced a dinner plate. Grüngeflammt, a crazy swirl of bright green lines on a white background, is still made today and recognized the world over as uniquely Austrian. Officially Gmundner Keramik touts that 50% of Austrian households have at least one piece of Gmundner, but in my experience it’s more like 100%!

In 1903 Leopold Schliess founded the Gmundner Earthenware Factory on the same site it stands today. 112 years later, 120 employees still make each piece by hand and you are welcome to visit the factory as they churn out 5000 pieces per day.

An hours drive from Salzburg, Gmunden Factory tours are held four times daily Monday through Thursday and once on Friday morning (reservations required).

Each ceramic piece will go through nearly 60 steps from the blank shape to the finished, fired piece and as you can imagine it is fascinating to get a first hand look at the process.

The tour will cost you €5 but no worries, the charge is refunded when you go wild in the factory store.

Always aspiring to embrace all that is Austrian, my own kitchen cabinets are piled high with green swirling dinner plates and festive Gmundner platters. One sip of coffee from a cup emblazoned with the intricate Jagd (Hunter) pattern and I am transported back to Salzburg in an instant.

If you stop into Gmundner Keramik you may not come home with a yodeling t-shirt but for years to come when you pour cream from the mouth of a green swirled cow pitcher, you will smile and think “remember that time I went to Salzburg?”