The people of Hallstatt and their guests

On mountain heights and at mountain depths

There are two types of holidaymakers. Some feel good when this year's vacation becomes the same as last year's. They go to the place they know, live in the hotel or guesthouse that they are familiar with, they are even annoyed when they cannot get the green-and-white-striped deck chair they had the previous year on the balcony. For every tourist destination these are the favourite, because they are the most loyal guests. When they come for the fifth, tenth or twentieth time, they will receive a gift and a handshake from the tourist chairman.

What awaits the guest

Then there is the other kind of holidaymaker who is always looking for new impressions and new experiences. Sometimes it should be a beach holiday, then again they want to go to the mountains. Sometimes they feel like relaxing, other times they are urged to take an educational holiday.
You can guess where I'm going with this: Hallstatt is the right choice for both types of holidaymakers. Those who love acknowledgement will be of one mind with the population - and will feel at home. Those who prefer variety - be my guest: They can swim or hike, climb or board one of the cable cars. They can go to mountain heights, but also to mountain depths: sometimes to the interior of the salt mountain to learn about the work of the miner of today and to walk in the footsteps of the miner from prehistoric times, another time to marvel at the fairy-tale world of the Dachstein caves.
There are again three possibilities: The giant ice caves with their bizarre palaces of eternal ice, the gigantic halls of the Mammoth Cave formed over millions of years, the Koppenbrüller Cave with its own romance of an active water cave.

True treasure chests of the country

Education enthusiasts can take a look around the two Hallstatt museums.
The Upper Austrian writer Rudolf Walter Litschel calls them "true treasure chests of the country", "because their exhibits span thousands of years". The Hallstatt Museum exhibits the animal world of our homeland, old costumes, musical instruments, weapons, tools, pictures, nativity scenes and even a real “Rauchkuchl”, which is a kitchen where it was cooked over an open fire. If you want, you can delve into geology and caving or study salt mining. A museum of its own is dedicated to prehistoric Hallstatt and offers an overview from the Stone Ages to the Roman finds.

Most beautiful mountain cemetery in Austria

Art connoisseurs who want to admire the masterpieces of Gothic, Baroque or Modernism will also get their money's worth in Hallstatt, as this book has tried to suggest. Contemplative types will be drawn to the ossuary in Hallstatt, photographers to the cemetery - it is one of the most beautiful mountain cemeteries in Austria. Those who want to combine art with walking should make a pilgrimage to the Kalvarienberg church. Speaking of going for a walk: Hallstatt visitors can choose between comfortable walks in the forest and extreme climbing tours, with all levels in between. It all sounds very much like a tourist brochure, which is just a list of the variety that awaits the holidaymaker in Hallstatt, of nature, art, history, taste buds and what other pleasures I don't know. Hallstatt holidaymakers will be able to choose from the options indicated and add them to their individual wishes and experiences.

This raises the question?

The holidaymaker from Hallstatt, what is that anyway? A being that cannot be further defined. It sometimes appears with a backpack, mountain stick and woolly socks, another time with film cameras and long telephoto lenses, a third time with nothing at all. Because there is also a place for the "without nothing", officially called nudists, at Lake Hallstatt. If you enjoy it, go ahead. The red, green and brown uniforms that holidaymakers have to wear when they visit the salt mine guarantee more fun than anything.

Colourful society

These outward appearances alone show that it is a very colourful society that comes to Hallstatt. The holidaymakers of Hallstatt are the Dachstein conquerors and the boatmen, the prehistorians and the stone collectors, the fishers and the fish eaters. More concretely: they are the King of Siam, who signed the tourist book of a Hallstatt hotel, and this is Mrs Huber, who was on a company outing. Holidaymakers in Hallstatt were Adalbert Stifter, Agatha Christie and Marlene Dietrich, the Archduke Johann and Willy Brandt, the poets Lenau, Raimund, Raabe and Zuckmayr, the painters Waldmüller, Alt and Lach. Dear reader, I could fill several more pages like this. Nevertheless, the best would be left for last: Because holidaymakers in Hallstatt are - in the past, present or future - certainly you too! Copyright of the English version: © www.hallstatt.net / All rights reserved.

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There is so much to discover in the UNESCO World Heritage region of Hallstatt Dachstein Salzkammergut. Old mines, mighty cave worlds or spectacular glaciers at romantic lakes - a paradise for cultural- and nature lovers.

Detailed: History of Hallstatt

The mining town of Hallstatt is located on the west bank of the fjord-like Lake Hallstatt. Due to the salt deposits, Celts settled here. Finds from the burial ground document a whole epoch - the Hallstatt period (800-400 BC).