Hallstatt is located on Lake Hallstatt. Together with the Dachstein and the Inner Salzkammergut, it is part of the Hallstatt-Dachstein / Salzkammergut UNESCO World Heritage Site.
Hallstatt is characterized by its idyllic location on the lake and the many historical buildings. Chinese architects liked Hallstatt so much that they built a replica of the world-famous place in China.
Mighty salt chambers were discovered there more than 4,000 years ago. The “white gold” is still mined in the “oldest salt mine in the world” above Hallstatt. Hallstatt, with its almost 4,000 year old past, offers a wide range of activities for those looking for traces. The Celtic graves, the salt mine, the prehistoric museum, the Houses nested one above the other in a small space, the churches, the cemetery with the ossuary and the “oldest pipeline in the world”, all of this can be admired in Hallstatt.
The annual visit of 600,000 to 700,000 day visitors, mainly from Asia, especially China, in the few streets of the small town, as a typical case of overtourism, has meanwhile caused controversy about the tolerable level of tourism and a limitation of the access of tour groups arriving by excursion buses.
Since autumn 2020, coaches have only been allowed to drive in and allow their groups to disembark in time slots previously allocated by the local tourist office and only offered in limited quantities.
Tourist Attractions:
- Catholic parish church Maria Himmelfahrt, Maria am Berg: The late Gothic parish church Maria Himmelfahrt, completed in 1505, sits enthroned on a rock above the roofs of the village. The mighty tower is the only remaining part of a previous church from 1320. The two-aisled hall church houses – in the right aisle – the Hallstatt Marien Altar, a late Gothic convertible altar from Upper Austria, as the most important cultural and historical sight. This miner’s altar with two pairs of wings was made around 1515 in the workshop of the Gmundner carver Leonhard Astl. The somewhat older left altar from the 15th century was robbed of its 4 painted wing panels in 1987. The wings were then equipped with black and white replicas. The stolen pictures were found 30 years later in Italy, returned to Austria in 2017 and restored in 2018.
- Karner: On the north side of the church in the cemetery is the Karner with the small ossuary, which dates back to the 16th century. A total of 610 skulls are stacked on the bones of the deceased. After about 20 to 30 years, the bones are exhumed, bleached and then decorated. On the forehead is usually the name of the person about the date of birth and death, painted with dark wreaths made of oak leaves, ivy or flowers. The ossuary is unique in the world because it is where the bones of entire generations are kept in their entirety.
- Hallstatt Museum: The museum owns, besides the Natural History Museum Vienna, the second extensive collection of finds from the Hallstatt period in Austria.
- Hallstatt-era grave field and salt gallery: A footpath and the salt mountain railway lead to the Hallstatt-era grave field and the salt gallery – the oldest in the world. From 1282 to 1284, Duke Albrecht I of Austria had the Rudolfsturm built, which was named after his father, Rudolf I. It served as a defensive structure during the salt war against Archbishop Konrad IV of Salzburg and was the home of the respective miner from 1313 until the middle of the 20th century. Today the tower houses a popular restaurant. The salt mine can be visited as part of a 70-minute tour. In 1734 the man was found in the salt and preserved by the dehydrating effect of the salt after he was killed in a mining accident in the 4th century BC.