HALLEIN SALZ WELTEN, AUSTRIA

We are having some rainy weather, so we stayed in on the 12th to give Don a chance to recover from his cold and gather up some energy.

Another rainy day today so we decided to go to the town of Hallein to take the tour of the famous salt mine.  We enjoyed the scenery on the way north to this suburb of Salzburg.  As we rounded a corner we saw a majestic castle perched high upon a hill.  It was so striking--white and imposing--we had to stop and take a photo of it.  We decided we would investigate this castle in the town of Werfen, and maybe we could tour it.

We really didn’t know what to expect with this salt mine, and we didn’t really know the significance of the salt either, so the visit was really interesting and something new.

The salt mines here have been mined for 2500 years, first by the Celts in 600BC.  The important period for the salt mines was during medieval times though.  The salt mines are what Salzburg is named for and what made Salzburg a very wealthy city.

Prince-Archbishop Wolf Dietrich von Raitenau (1559-1617) was the leader in this region at the time.  He exploited the mines using a method called wet mining.  This method entailed mining the rock, soaking it in water to extract the salt and then distilling the water to extract the salt.  Prince Wolf Dietrich  became one of the wealthiest men in Europe with his proceeds from the salt mines.  He built many beautiful baroque palaces and made Salzburg into a magnificent medieval city. 

When we began our visit in the salt mines we all donned white suits and then we straddled a kind of a bench on wheels and we were scooted along a track through the entrance to the mouth of the salt mines.  We had a nice guide who gave us the story in both German and English and there was also a movie dramatization of Wolf Dietrich and his bumbling servant, Jacobus.  After entering the mine and stopping in the first cavern we walked along the tracks for about half a kilometer and then mounted a wooden slide which moved us down into the depths of the cave.  There were no handrails on either the wheeled bench device or the slide, and I wondered if I would slip off, but both rides were quite stable and we made it down the two slides with no problem.

After sliding down the wooden slides we were several hundred feet below ground.  We learned all about the wet extraction method of mining, saw veins of pure salt crossing the ceiling of the caves, examined mining equipment from the middle ages and tasted the extremely salty brine at the tasting tap.  At each stop along the tour our guide gave us interesting tidbits and the movie Archbishop and his servant took us back into the 16th century with their reenactments.  Eventually we passed from Austria across the German border, all underground in the salt mine.  We floated through a salt lake on a boat and peeked into the grotto to see the salt man--an ancient Celt who had been trapped, died and preserved in the salt for thousands of years.  It was a terrific tour and we enjoyed it.

After leaving the mine and turning in our clean suits we explored the Celtic village which has been reconstructed on the hillside near the mine.

A very satisfying day of touring.