Hallstatt

Hallstatt is an idyllic town located directly at lake Hallstättersee only 20 minutes away by car from our guesthouse. The town was built due to the rich salt sources in the mountain.

Salt mine Hallstatt

After going up the mountain in the „Panoramabahn“, your journey back in time commences at the 1st millennium before Christ. Wearing protective clothing, you will now enter a truly unique underground world. Step by step, you will slowly approach the secrets hiding within this mountain. And in process, you will be constantly in awe of what the people of the time managed to achieve while searching for “white gold” by driving tunnels through the mountain with their bare hands. Rapidly going down miner slides, you will finally arrive at the underground saline lake with its very unusual orchestrations. Unforgettable is the final ride with the miner train back to daylight at the Hallstatt valley.

The bone house in Hallstatt

The bone house dates back to the 12th century AC. There are over 1200 skulls in the charnel, of which 610 have been painted with flowery designs. They are neatly stacked in rows along with next of kin and have the date of decease written on them. Since the cemetery is so small without the possibility to expand and due to the fact that cremations were forbidden in former times there was just not enough space. The graves were opened 10 – 15 years later and the skulls were removed and cleaned. Afterwards they were exposed to the sun and moon light for weeks until they were bleached ivory white and were painted symbolically with a crown of flowers.