History of Hallstatt
Small village with a great history
The picturesque village on the lake with the same name owes its existence to the rich salt deposit of salt in the mountain of Hallstatt. 7000 years ago, as the prehistoric humans from Hallstatt began to take the salt from the salt mine who would of guessed, that this little village would give its name to a period in history – the Hallstatt period (800-400 BC). Rich findings in Hallstatt and the upper valley of Hallstatt gave this village international recognition; even today discoveries are still made in the salt mountain of Hallstatt.
A historical cultural landscape since thousands of years
The region around Lake Hallstatt appealed very early to humans looking for the vital salt. There are traces of salt mining on the Hallstatt Salzberg
tourism slowly developed in this region, and the first travellers wrote in their guidebooks about travelling through the “Austrian Switzerland”. Tourism really took off with the construction of the railway, making the area more accessible. Since then the Inner Salzkammergut is a most popular tourist destination, which also was internationally appreciated with the World Cultural Heritage nomination by the UNESCO.