Halloren- und Salinemuseum

Halle's identity comes from salt — its name is the old Celtic word for it — and the saltworks museum is the place to make sense of that history. The museum occupies the last active saline at the southern end of the old town and shows how brine was pumped up from underground springs and boiled down to crystals in long flat pans.

On certain days, museum staff fire the pans and demonstrate the boiling — heat, steam, and the smell of evaporating brine. The display on the Halloren brotherhood, with their black-and-white uniforms and silver chain ornaments, is worth a look in its own right.

things to do museum
A story
The Halloren — the city's traditional salt-makers — formed a closed brotherhood for almost a thousand years, with their own court, their own dress, and their own oath. The brotherhood still exists, and on festival days its members appear in distinctive black-and-white outfits and silver-ball necklaces.