The brine pipeline - a masterpiece

Oldest pipeline in the world

Hallstatt owes its origin and importance to salt. "The Hallstatt" is what the people of Hallstatt say. This is correct and not difficult to explain. Hallstatt is the salt store.

For the first time in the history of mankind, there is evidence of the mining of salt in Hallstatt. As early as the end of the Bronze Age, around the year 1000 BC, systematic industrial salt mining began. However, what the first Hallstatt miners had to bring down to the valley in heavy sacks has been provided by water for centuries. Tracking down the salt deposits of Hallstatt was a great moment for mankind. No less admirable, however, is the idea of transporting the salt in liquid form.

You can follow the splashing of the brine, i.e. the salt solution that flows out of the mine, all the way to Ebensee. The brine pipeline covers this forty-kilometre route (well signposted and also ideal for lateral entrants) together with a brine pipeline path - one of the most charming and comfortable hiking trails in the Salzkammergut. Here and there, the hiker at the edge of the path still notices the remains of the old wooden pipe, today the pipes are made of iron or plastic.

In 1595, construction began on this pipeline, the oldest pipeline in the world that is still in operation. It led first to Lauffen, then to Ischl, finally to Ebensee, where Hallstatt brine was processed into salt as early as 1607. Let's stay a little longer with the brine pipeline: One of the biggest sights on the path of the Hallstatt brine is the Gosauzwang. More than two hundred years ago, Johann Spielbüchler from Hallstatt devised a way to cross the Gosau valley without pressure, a brine pipeline bridge leading over seven stone pillars.

There were good reasons for the construction of this simple and ingenious construction for brine transport: the lack of wood. This sounds unlikely in a forest-framed area, but you have to imagine that the tunnel construction in the mine, but especially the operation of the brewing pans, devoured thousands of cubic meters of wood. Part of the precious natural treasures of the salt mountain were processed into salt in Hallstatt, rowed across the lake to Steeg and handed over to the Traun ships there. The other part migrated via the brine pipeline to the brewhouses in Ischl and Ebensee. Non-stop, day and night, summer and winter, the brine still flows through the pipes today.

Salt - how much longer?

With the amount of salt that is extracted from the Hallstatt salt mine in one hour, a small town could cover the entire salt demand for a year. Isn't this overexploitation that is being carried out here? Late, probably too late, we have understood that the reserves in the interior of our earth are not inexhaustible. The experts have calculated that if the rate of mining with coal, crude oil and also fissile uranium continues to increase, we will already be at the end of our ropes when those born today have reached the age of thirty. The total producer of the Austrian salt works, i.e. the amount of brine and salt extracted from the salt mines of Hallstatt, Bad Ischl, Altaussee and Hallein, amounts to about two million cubic metres of brine and 400,000 tonnes of salt per year. How much longer? The layman asks worriedly. Is there still salt left for our grandchildren and great-grandchildren? Is salt also available elsewhere in Austria and is it worth mining it? Should we, as has been unsuccessfully attempted so far with energy, make appeals to save salt as well?

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The historical Brine Trail

From Hallstatt to Ebensee on Lake Traunsee. Over a length of 30 kilometres along the oldest active pipeline in the world in several stages with lots of information about the Salzkammergut. Note: Currently closed between Hallstatt and the Bad Goiser village "Steeg" due to rockfall hazards!

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).

Theme trail "Salzkammergut Brine Trail" ("Salzkammergut Soleweg")

A unique path. With many informative boards on the subject of "salt mining". Join us on an impressive tour along the oldest pipeline in the world. A natural pleasure for "long-term walkers" and short-term hikers".