Salt Mountain View at the Salzbergbahn Valley Station
Standing at the foot of the funicular in the Lahn quarter, you look straight up at the salt mountain that gave Hallstatt its name and its fortune. Somewhere above you lies the oldest salt mine on Earth, worked for some seven thousand years.
About this place
This is where the story of Hallstatt begins, at the southern end of the village in the Lahn quarter, where the Salzbergbahn funicular launches itself up the steep green flank of the Salzberg, the Salt Mountain. From this valley station the glass cabins climb to an elevation of around 838 metres in roughly three minutes, carrying visitors to the high valley where the Salzwelten salt mine has been worked for about seven thousand years, making it the oldest salt mine in the world. Far above the funicular, jutting out over the rooftops, you can pick out the Skywalk viewing platform, fittingly named the Welterbeblick, or World Heritage View, suspended some 360 metres above the village. Everything you will see on this walk, the painted houses, the slender church spires on the shore and the lake itself, exists because of what comes out of this mountain: salt, the white gold that turned a remote alpine hamlet into a place known across the world. Our walk stays down in the village, but keep glancing up; the mountain is always watching over Hallstatt.
Key facts
- 7000 years — Salt has been mined on the Salzberg above you, making it the oldest salt mine in the world
- 838 metres — Elevation reached by the Salzbergbahn funicular from this valley station
- 360 metres — Height of the Skywalk Welterbeblick platform above the village rooftops
📍 Salzbergstraße 21, 4830, Hallstatt