The Star: January 18, 2018

The Star Latest Christchurch news at www.star.kiwi
Thursday January 18 2018 45
Travel
Explore the salt mines of Hallstatt
ISOLATION: Hallstatt is ripe with outdoorsy
opportunities.
ANCIENT HISTORY: Access to the Salzwelten salt mining operation is by funicular railway. Have fun on
• By Mike Yardley
DO A Google image search
of Hallstatt and you’ll
notice that it’s one particular
perspective, looking
long across the length
of the slender village,
strung along a shoe-string
peninsula, pricked by lofty
church spires, that sings
out loud.
Wedged between the
edge of Lake Hallstatt and
the towering Dachstein
mountains, Austria’s oldest
– and arguably most photographed
village – hovered
like a mirage, as I neared it.
It is insanely quaint, achingly
beautiful and home to
just 800 residents.
High above Hallstatt, in
the upper valley, one of the
greatest eye-openers was to
take a journey back in time
to the origin of salt production.
Salzwelten is situated
high above the town on
the 1030m Salzberg (Salt
Mountain). You can access
this remarkable attraction
aboard a funicular.
My first stop was at Rudolf’s
Tower, which serves
up dreamy views from this
old fortification, built over
700 years ago to defend
the mines against invaders.
It’s been joined by the
Sky Walk, built four years
ago, consisting of a sprawling
platform that juts off
the mountainside, with a
sheer drop to the rooftops
of Hallstatt, directly below.
The starring attraction,
however, is the 7000-year-
a 64m wooden slide that miners used on the job.
old salt mine itself.
It’s the world’s oldest
known salt mine, with
archaeological evidence
proving they were mining
the salt from this mountain
in 5000BC.
Since salt is such an
excellent preservative many
of the early miner’s tools
like pick axes and ladders,
found within the mine,
have withstood the ravages
of time. By 800BC, the
hardy miners were penetrating
as deep as 200m
into the mountain, carving
out tunnels by hand, to
reach the vast deposits of
“white gold.”
The greatest discovery to
date was the “Man in Salt”,
the corpse of an ancient
miner, mummified in salt,
who is believed to have
perished during a major
workplace accident in
1000BC.
His preserved body
was found in 1734 and
he was laid to rest in the
local graveyard, 2700 years
after dying. Within the
mine, I marvelled over the
magnificently preserved
wooden staircase that was
built in 1344BC. The tourist
experience takes you
through two levels, using
the wooden slides that the
miners actually used on
the job. Riding these 64m
slides must have been the
fun part to their daily toil.
Back down in town, I
paid to visit to St Michael’s
Chapel’s Bone House.
Dating back to the 12thcentury,
the rather macabre
draw is the hundreds of
artistically painted skulls
on display. Hallstatt’s shortage
of available land meant
the graveyard was always
in hot demand and after
several years, an existing
grave was reused for a new
burial. Over 30,000 entries
have been logged in the
church death registry.
Given Hallstatt’s glorious
sense of alpine isolation,
the area is ripe with outdoorsy
opportunities.
Backdropped by the
Dachstein mountains, the
peaks play host to skiers
in winter and hikers in the
warmer months. Some will
take you up close to glaciers,
including the stunning nature
walk on the Echerntal
Trail, which many a romantic
poet and painter have
swooned over. The mountains
are also famous for
the spectacular Dachstein
Caves, a network of caverns
nearly 1200m deep.
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