The town is located in the Tennengau region south of the City of Salzburg, stretching along the Salzach river in the shadow of the Untersberg massif, close to the border with Germany in the west.

In the mid 8th century AD, Duke Tassilo III of Bavaria granted the estates to the Salzburg diocese; from 987 they were held by St Peter's Abbey.

In 1489 Prince-Archbishop Leonhard von Keutschach in 1489 acquired a large brewery, whereafter the sale of Hofbräu Kaltenhausen beers became another main source of revenue for the Salzburg archbishopric.

At the end of the 17th century, Prince-Archbishop Kuenburg had the Protestant miners expelled, after which several hundred of them emigrated to Walcheren and Zeelandic Flanders in the Dutch Republic.

In mid-1947, ORT opened a school in two of the barracks, teaching tailoring, dressmaking, electrical and radio technology, baking, beautician training, and upholstery to over 200 students.

The Keltenmuseum displays artifacts and narrative describing the early Hallstatt and La Tene Celtic cultures as well as the development of salt mining in the region through the Middle Ages and Renaissance.