I say 'miniature' since the little town is perched on a narrow sliver of shore line, between the lake shore and a mountain.
The commercial success of Hallstatt was, of course, based on the mining of salt, dating back to the Celtic, Proto-Celtic and pre-Illyrian time. It is estimated that a settlement existed there between 800 to 450 B.C.
This little town gave its name to the early Iron Age 'Hallstatt culture'
The area was economically well situated due to the high value of Salt.
In the early days the settlement could only be reached by boat, or via a narrow foot path above the town.
Since 1595 the brine had been routed via the world's oldest pipeline, which originally consisted of 13,000 hollowed out trees.
Cemetery ? There is so little space available that bodies used to be exhumed every ten years and the skulls, with the name of the deceased carefully and artfully printed thereon stored in an ossuary.
Earliest archaeological finds date back to about 5,500 BC.
No description will suffice to give you the feel of a visit to Hallstatt.
A few pictures may help, though.
View of Hallstatt from the South.
The Main Square with the fountain and the Column
thanking God that he stopped the Black Plague..
(It's strange: He does not get the blame for sending it,
but He gets the credit for ending it.)
When visiting this smallest of small towns
one gets the feeling to be in "Gulliver's Lilliput"
Right behind the church the mountain rises.
Buildings compete for every square inch.
A home built right up against and into the rockface.
You live up there ?
You had better get used to climbing steps.
A Replica ?
On the 2nd June 2012, it was reported that the Chinese Mining company, "China Minmetals Corp". had built a full scale replica of the entire town in Huizhou, Guangdong province.
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