Things to do in Hallstatt

Hallstatt is a lakeside village in the Salzkammergut, in Upper Austria. It sits on the Hallstätter See below a wall of salt mountain. Fewer than a thousand people live here.

The village gave its name to the Hallstatt culture, the Iron Age people buried in the cemetery above it. UNESCO inscribed the cultural landscape in 1997.

Walking the village

The village is one lake edge and a few lanes, so an hour covers the lot. The history takes longer.

• Marktplatz. The central square, lined with houses from the 16th century.
• Welterbemuseum. The World Heritage museum, with finds from the Iron Age graves above the village.
• Two churches. The Evangelical parish church and, up the steps, the Catholic church of the Assumption.
• The charnel house. A chapel beside the Catholic church, holding rows of painted skulls.
• The brewery. Granted brewing rights by Emperor Maximilian I in 1504.

Above the village and further out

A funicular climbs to the salt mine. Visitors go down on the wooden slides the miners used. Longer day trips add the lake, an ice cave and mountain hikes.

Transfers are the main booking. Zurich takes about five and a half hours by road, or seven and a half with a two-hour stop in Munich. Český Krumlov, across the Czech border, is a five-hour run with one stop.

Practical

• Weather. July highs reach about 23C, and thunderstorms are common. In January expect about 1C by day and around -5C at night.
• Getting here. The train station lies across the lake, and a ferry carries passengers over to the village.
• By road. Salzburg lies roughly 90 minutes away. Parking is at the edge of the village, not in it.
• Crowds. Day-trippers arrive from mid-morning. Early mornings and evenings are quiet.