For Emperor Franz Joseph, Bad Ischl meant spa treatments and summer retreats, the joy of operettas, beautiful scenery, and “heaven on earth.” But the town also stands for exploitation, bans on entry, crises, dictatorship—and a glorious resurgence. “Longing for the Salzkammergut” explores the history, culture, and identity of a world-famous region. “Sehnsucht Salzkammergut” focuses on a world-famous region. The companion volume to the exhibition at the Museum of the City of Bad Ischl describes a secluded land, inhabited for millennia, that lived off salt. It was privately owned by the Habsburgs, a region of the poor—artisans, farmhands, maidservants, and miners—a “state within a state.” With the discovery of the healing effects of brine treatments, spa guests began to arrive, and ever since Emperor Franz Joseph I spent his summer retreats in Ischl, the town became a temporary imperial city every year. Dictatorship and National Socialism led to catastrophe. After 1945, a boom followed once again. Spa and summer retreat guests are once again populating the town, and in 2024, for the first time, a rural region was designated “European Capital of Culture.”