About Drossen Dam

The Drossen Reservoir is one of the smaller storage facilities in the Kaprun-Zell am See hydropower network in the state of Salzburg. The 75-metre arch dam, completed in 1949, stores 4 million cubic metres in a steep side valley of the Salzach tributary system at approximately 1,050 metres above sea level. Drossen functions as a compensating basin within VERBUND's multi-stage power plant cascade, evening out the flow from larger upstream reservoirs before discharge to the valley floor. Despite its relatively small volume, the dam's 75-metre height reflects the steep topography of the Salzburg Alps, where narrow gorges can impound significant head with modest reservoir surface area. The Drossen reservoir is not generally accessible to the public but is visible from mountain paths in the surrounding Hohe Tauern foothills. The name derives from the local toponym for the stream valley, a common pattern in the Austrian alpine naming tradition where infrastructure takes the name of the nearest natural feature.