Semmering, most easterly and lowest (3,232 feet [985 metres]) of the great Alpine passes, at the boundary between Bundesländer (federal provinces) Steiermark (Styria) and Niederösterreich (Lower Austria), in east-central Austria. Situated in the watershed dividing the Mur and Leitha drainage basins, it facilitates Vienna’s communications with the Balkans via Steiermark, with Italy via Kärnten (Carinthia), and with Innsbruck via the upper Enns Valley. Since the ancient routes skirted the Alps in the east, the Semmering remained unimportant until the foundation of a hospice (Spital am Semmering) in 1160 and the union of Austria and Steiermark. The first road through the pass was built in 1728 and rebuilt in 1839–42. The Semmering Railway (1848–54), the first mountain railway in the world, passes 282 feet below the summit of the pass through a tunnel nearly one mile long. A second parallel tunnel was inaugurated in 1952.
The health and winter-sports resort of Semmering lies on the open pass. It is surrounded by pine-forested heights and is overlooked on the north by the Rax (6,585 feet) and the Schneeberg (6,811 feet) peaks.