Salzbergwerk Hallein

Underground salt mine with wooden slides and an underground lake

The Salzbergwerk — the salt mine above Hallein — is the reason most travellers come. Salt has been mined on the Dürrnberg plateau for at least 2,600 years, first by the Celts who made the region rich, then by the Habsburgs who founded Salzburg ("Salt Castle") on the proceeds. Commercial mining only ended in 1989. The mine is now a tourist attraction and one of the best in Austria.

The tour begins with a ride on an electric mine train deep into the mountain, then walks through galleries to the underground brine lake, with two long polished wooden slides — the original way miners moved between levels — that visitors slide down on their bottoms. Allow two hours. Tours run year-round and tickets include the cable car up from the valley and a visit to the small reconstructed Celtic village outside.

things to do sight
A story
The Dürrnberg salt deposits were first mined around 600 BC by the Celts, who grew rich enough to buy Greek wine and Etruscan bronze with their salt. When the mines were excavated in the nineteenth century, the freeze-dried bodies of Celtic miners killed in cave-ins were found perfectly preserved in the salt — most of them with their tools and lunch baskets still beside them.