Hallstatt

VillagesUpper Austria,Austria

Fragile nature — stay on the trail, leave no trace.

An Austrian village wedged between a lake and a mountain, above the world's oldest salt mine, that gave an age of European prehistory its name.

September·Edge of season

Sep–Oct

Golden autumn: crowds thin, dawn mist thickens on the still lake, and from mid-October the larches on the Dachstein slopes turn gold; the salt mine stays open and the Giant Ice Cave runs until 1 November.

Year-round The lakeside village under the Dachstein cliffs is here year-round; on misty mornings the lake reflects it whole. May-June and September-October bring fewer crowds and golden light on the slopes.

Hallstatt is a village of barely 750 people wedged onto a strip of shore between a lake and a near-vertical mountain. There is so little flat ground that the tall narrow houses are stacked up the slope behind one another, and a few can only be reached by stairways cut into the rock. Until 1890 there was no road in at all; people arrived by boat or over the mountain. The lake is the Hallstätter See, dark and deep, and the Dachstein massif rises straight off its far side. Salt built this place: it has been cut out of the mountain above the village for around 7,000 years, and that trade paid for the houses on the shore. It also made the village important enough that an entire age of European prehistory is named after it. Arrive early and the lake often lies under a sheet of mist, with the church spire and pastel houses doubling on still water. That lasts until the buses come, and they come: up to 10,000 people a day, most on a short stop. Above the roofs, the Skywalk terrace juts twelve metres out over the village, some 350 metres above the water, and a funicular climbs to the salt mine. Deep in those tunnels stands the oldest wooden staircase in Europe, built around 1344 BC. Beside St Michael's chapel, a small charnel house holds more than 1,200 skulls on wooden shelves, hundreds of them hand-painted. The village ran out of burial ground centuries ago and this was the answer. Behind the waterfront, stepped lanes barely wide enough for two run up past window boxes and the Mühlbach stream where it tumbles through the houses. Barely 750 residents against a million visitors a year is a balance the village now argues about openly.

Worth knowing

Good to know

Day-trippers pour in around mid-morning and drain away by evening — arrive before ten or linger past five, and the waterfront lanes empty out even at the height of summer.
Skip the crowded street viewpoint for the Skywalk terrace — the salt-mine funicular lifts you some 350 metres to a railed platform holding the whole village, lake and Dachstein in one frame.
The lake mirrors the village only in the calm just after dawn — a breeze usually ruffles the surface by mid-morning, so the still, doubled reflection is an early riser's reward.

Things to do

1
Meet the village from the water
A little ferry meets each train at the station across the water and crosses to the village in about ten minutes. From the deck Hallstatt rises in front of you all at once — houses, spire and mountain stacked into a single wall — the entrance no road can offer. Wooden boathouses along the shore rent rowing and electric boats if you want longer out there. From the middle of the lake the village shrinks and quietens, on water that stays cold and clear even in August.
2
Frame the church from the dawn promenade
The slender Evangelical spire on the waterfront is the shape that anchors nearly every picture of Hallstatt. Walk out onto the lakeside promenade before mid-morning, while the water is still glass and no boats have crossed to ripple it, and line the spire up against the mountain in the reflection below. A breeze usually creeps in later, so the mirror-flat version is the reward for arriving first.
3
Visit the Beinhaus
Up the stone steps beside the Catholic church, a small room holds row upon row of skulls, most inscribed with a name and ringed with a painted wreath of flowers. A caretaker is often there to explain a custom born of a hillside with no room left to bury its dead.
4
Climb the lanes past the waterfall
Behind the waterfront the village climbs the cliff on stepped lanes barely wide enough for two, running past window boxes and the Mühlbach stream where it tumbles down through the houses. It takes ten minutes to walk end to end, and every few steps opens another slot of lake between the walls.
5
Ride up to the world's oldest salt mine
A steep funicular climbs from the village to the mine that has been worked for some 7,000 years. Inside you pull on miners' overalls, ride the long wooden slides the salt-workers use to drop between levels, and cross a still underground salt lake. Deep in the tunnels stands the oldest wooden staircase in Europe, built around 1344 BC.

Watch

Nearby

11 km