Other streams flow into the Oker in the urban area and give Altenau a townscape with numerous valleys and hilltops.

It was built together with the Sperberhaier dam in the years 1732–1734, which closed a gap in the Upper Harz water shelf and bridged a shallow valley basin at a height of up to 16 m. Most of the original house has been preserved.

The Bastesiedlung is a former lumberjack settlement between Bad Harzburg and Torfhaus in the Goslar district in the Harz region .

The Baste forest workers' settlement is located north of the Torfhaus district on Bundesstraße 4 and comprises six timber-framed half-timbered houses that were built between 1949 and 1950.

Duke Wolfgang gave the place the directionality 1603 Already 50 buildings are mentioned 1606 Construction of the first town hall 1610 Previous construction of a silver smelter 1617 Elevation of Altenau to town 1636 Altenau fell to Duke August zu Braunschweig-Lüneburg-Celle 1636 Altenau became a free mining town 1642 Construction of the steeple of the later St. Nikolai Church 1653 50 houses are counted 1665 Altenau finally came to Hanover after disputes over inheritance 1669 Construction of the St. Nikolai Church in place of the previous building, located between the two settlement centers of the city 1673 Construction of today's town hall 1691 New construction of the silver smelter 1698 930 inhabitants are counted 1711 Start of mining at the Silberlilie mine December 18, 1729 flood of the Oker 1740 1400 inhabitants are counted 1746 closure of the pits on the Gerlachsbach 1748 Closure of the Güldener Hirsch mine 1762 Closure of the Green Treasury and Rose 1773 The silver lily pit is closed 1777 Johann Wolfgang von Goethe stays in Altenau July 6, 1794 a large fire destroyed 29 houses in the Breite Strasse 1794 Construction of a fiscal ironworks below the silverworks 1813 1174 inhabitants and 165 houses are counted 1871 cessation of the ironworks 1901 Foundation of the volunteer fire brigade 1911 closure of the silver smelter 1914 Connection of Altenau to the Innerstetalbahn 1972 Administrative community within the joint municipality of Upper Harz 1972 Construction of the holiday park "Glockenberg" 1977 Closure of the Innerstetalbahn 2015 The mining town of Altenau is dissolved.

Previously, 62% of the Altenauers who voted had spoken out against it in a public survey; however, according to a clause in the statutes, the result was not binding on the council.

Many thousands of tourists visit the year-round cultivated botanical garden, which shows a multitude of varieties.

The wood carving workshop on Hüttenstrasse, set up by the folk artist Richard Meier in 1958, offers typical Harz and Erzgebirge wooden products as well as several dioramas with moving figures.

The exhibition there is dedicated to the presentation of the living conditions in the Upper Harz, which were strongly influenced by mining and the professions that depend on it - metallurgy, forestry, charcoal-burning and haulage.

Winter market 2006 local elections: 1856 Tolle (first mayor) 1878 Rössing 1879 Jordan 1890 Hodann 1894 Aderhold 1896 king 1904 Schmidt 1908 (February 17) Dr. Angel 1913 angel 1915 custom 1918 Unoccupied 1919 Cooper 1931 Breyel 1946-1948 Tosch 1948-1953 Heins 1950 Heins (Mayor), Breyel (City Manager) 1953–1956 squire 1956–1971 forester 1971–1976 Biegholdt 1976-1981 Loikkasek 1981–1986 Biegholdt 1986–1991 Schierloh 1991-2005 Gerhard Lindemann since 2005 Alexander Ehrenberg The Protestant majority of the population is organized in the parish of St. Nikolai, the center of which is the St. Nikolai Church, built in 1669 in the center of Altenau.

There are also numerous companies that can be attributed to tourism, such as hotels, guest houses, holiday apartments, restaurants and the corresponding retail trade.

Via an approximately eight kilometer long and up to nine percent steep country road, the "Steile Wand", you can access the B 4 in Torfhaus .

Buses of the regional bus Braunschweig (RBB) and the HarzBus drive to Goslar, Clausthal-Zellerfeld and Sankt Andreasberg .