The Place

Forty-five miles southeast of Salzburg lies a cool black lake, the surface of which barely shows a ripple.  Above the lake tower the mountains of the limestone alps, snow still resting on the heads and shoulders of the loftier peaks.  Waterfalls cascade down to the lake from unseen heights above.  Perched precariously on the slopes of one of the mountains is a village.  This village is the place.

People first began to settle this secluded spot in what is now Austria at least 7,500 years ago.  Why?  For the same reason people settle anywhere, they found a resource.  In this particular case, the resource was one of humanity's most important minerals, salt.

wikipedia.org

Salt is a necessary element to the survival of every living thing as it is responsible for water regulation in the body.  If you have too little salt in your system, you can become quite sick, even die.  Too much, and you have similar problems.  Of course, salt is important to humans for other reasons.  We put it on our food to add flavor.  Until canning and refrigeration were developed, salt was used to preserve food, especially meats, for long term storage.  So, when humans first arrived here and noticed salt brine pouring out of mountain springs, they knew they were onto something.  Initially, the salt brine was collected in earthen jars and the liquid was evaporated off, leaving the salt crystals behind.  Sometime during the Late Bronze Age, the first systematic mining began using simple tools like deer antlers.  Later, during the Iron Age, salt production had become so successful it led to the cultivation of a highly sophisticated settlement.  Hallstatt means "salt settlement," from the Celtic word Hall- meaning salt.  The village's archaeological site from the Iron Age became the type site of what is now known as Hallstatt Culture.  Hallstatt Culture is the first definitive period of the broader Celtic culture, the largest prehistoric and protohistoric people group in  Europe until its Roman takeover in the first century BC.  Salt production in Hallstatt has been carried out nearly continuously until present day.  The salt mine above the village is the oldest in the world.

View over Hallstatt from the salt mine.

Today people come to Hallstatt for a number of reasons.  Tourism, not salt, is the village's main source of income.  As the local population numbers decline, the villagers rent out rooms to tourists in their massive 18th Century alpine family dwellings.  The salt mine, while still in operation, is now also open to the public where they can learn about the prehistoric miners, geology.  You can ride mine carts and slides all while wearing the provided coveralls.  Another attraction is the Hallstatt Museum which relates the history and archaeology of Hallstatt in modern exhibitions.  Probably the most interesting sight in town is the ossuary behind the Catholic church.  Until rather recently, graves in the tiny Catholic cemetery were disinterred to make room for new tenants every 10 years.  The bones of the former occupants were cleaned, the skulls painted with their names and dates along with some flowers, and then stacked in the ossuary for display.

Besides these unique sights, the real attraction is the town itself.  It is the quintessential Alpine village.  Hallstatt will provide you perfect postcard photos no matter the direction or season.  The restaurants serve fresh fish from the lake and rivers.  As mentioned before, the accommodations are the guest rooms in the beautiful houses of the village.  The shopping is quite unique for a tourist town.  Nearly every shop sells distinctive locally made goods from ceramics, to jewelry, to soaps, to woodcrafts.  You can even buy lamps made of salt from the mine.  There are also places in town to pick up outdoor gear, for those visiting the region for its recreational offerings.

Mountain biking, backpacking, day hiking, rock climbing, and scuba diving are all popular sports in the area.  Gondolas can take visitors up to the higher peaks or people can choose one of the many alpine trails to reach these stunning places on foot.  The tight roads along with the high traffic of buses and out of town drivers doesn't lend the area well for road cycling, at least in my opinion.  But, to be quite honest, this isn't an area you want to speed through.  You will want to savor this place.

The Roman copy of the Hellenic original, The Dying Gaul.

wikipedia.org

We went to Hallstatt for the archaeology.  As a young student, it was the Celts, not the Romans, Greeks, or Egyptians that captured my interest.  Today, the terms Celt and Celtic generally refers to the non-English inhabitants and culture of the British Isles and most specifically the Irish.  However, from approximately 800 BC until 1 BC, the Celts were the dominant people of continental Europe.  Their towns, scared places, and trade networks were well established when the Romans were still herding goats on Palatine hill.  They were farmers, merchants, artisans, doctors, poets, astronomers, craftsmen, and warriors.  They were just as influential on European history as their rival Romans.  Their territory stretched from Ireland to Romania, and as far south as the Portuguese coast.  Celtic colonies have been found in the Ukraine and Turkey.  The famous Gauls of France were in fact Celts.  They sacked Rome in 390 BC and clashed with Julius Caesar during the Gallic Wars over 300 years later.  Celts founded the city of Milan in northern Italy and it was to Celts that Paul evangelized to in Galatia 50 years after the death of Christ.  Celtic influence can be seen all over the continent today, over 2,000 years after their final defeat at the battle of Alesia.  The country code for Switzerland, CH, comes from the country's romantic name- Confoederatio Helvetica.  The Helvetii were the Celts of Switzerland during Rome's expansion into the continent.  Belgium gets its name from the Belgae tribe.  While France gets its name from the Franks, a Germanic tribe, genetically a majority of the French population is Celtic and their language is a blend of Celtic languages and Latin, hence why it looks like a Latin language, but doesn't quite sound like one.  The regional languages spoken in Brittany, Breton and Gallo, are Celtic languages.  The populations of Austria, Switzerland, and Belgium are also still quite Celtic in ancestry, despite millennia of migration and conflict.  Today, the last recognizable Celtic "nations" are Ireland, Scotland, Brittany, Cornwall, Wales, and the Isle of Man.  Alas, I digress.  The point is, the Celts of the continent were a vibrant people who tend to get skipped over in the history books.  That's what happens when you don't write things down.  Although they, like the Romans, had rich histories and mythologies, this knowledge was passed down generation to generation through stories and song.  They never recorded them with the written word.  Documentation was left to their Roman conquerors who, understandably, weren't exactly objective.

Monument to the archaeology of Johann Georg Ramsauer in Hallstatt.

mshanks.com

That's where archaeology and the village of Hallstatt come in.  In 1846, the salt mine foreman, Johann Georg Ramsauer, discovered an ancient grave on the hillside near the mine entrance.  He and his team subsequently excavated over 1,000 burials on the hillside.  His excavation techniques were remarkable by modern field standards.  He removed the soil layer by layer, took copious detailed notes, and created beautiful watercolors of each grave.  Hallstatt has one of the largest and richest cultural deposits from this period of prehistory and the site fleshed out our understanding of the culture that thus far had only been identified in Roman texts as a barbarian horde.  The grave goods of Hallstatt showed the Celts to be far from brutish barbarians.  Not only were the finds themselves extremely important for the narrative of Iron Age Europe, but Ramsauer's techniques helped to modernize the field of archaeology.  For those of us that have spent time studying this period, Hallstatt is a well-known name.  Since I first read about the place almost 20 years ago, it stuck in my mind.  There are very few places on earth that are not only that culturally significant, but also so stunning to look upon.

It meant a great deal to me to visit Hallstatt, mostly because of its significance in inspiring my eventual studies in history and archaeology.  There was something about that secluded place on the lake with its clues to history in the hillside and forgotten salt mine chambers that captured my imagination and eventually had me take up a trowel.  In the back of my mind, I had hoped to visit this site who's personal importance outweighed the Forum, Pompeii, the Pyramids of Giza, or the Serpent Mound.  It turned out to be even more enjoyable than I had imagined.  Besides the archaeology, all the other wonderful aspects of Hallstatt make a visit worthwhile.  I imagine that's why it is such a popular destination for people from all over the world.  In fact, it is so popular with the Chinese that there is an exact replica of the village in Huìzhōu.  Despite its popularity for tourists, Hallstatt and the region still manages to keep ahold of itself.  When the buses leave for the day, it is just a regular Austrian village.  The locals chat on the streets, boats head to and from their garages to fish the Hallstätter See, on Sundays the townsfolk can be seen wearing their dirndls and trachts.  While they no doubt tire a bit from the constant parade of foreign tourists through their town, you'd never know it.  No matter if you're stepping into a shop, restaurant or the museum you will always be met with a cheery smile.

While I'm sure to keep on traveling, I have a strong suspicion that Hallstatt, Austria has become and will remain The Place.  There have only been a couple spots to make the "must return to" list, most of them have tall mountains and clear water.  However, this place has that extra special something, something that has me saying we need to go back.  Again and again.