2023-10-10 04:23:27
Altaussee in the Styrian Salzkammergut has a long tradition in salt mining. His mine is the largest salt mining site in Austria. The history of settlement dates back to the 2nd to 4th centuries AD. Archaeological finds suggest late Roman salt mining. It has been practiced intensively since the 14th century. Today, the idyllic community with almost 1,900 inhabitants is primarily a tourism destination.
The conditions arose around 250 million years ago. At that time, an ocean stretched across large parts of southern and eastern Europe. A highly saline basin was formed, which was later covered by dust and sediments. When the continents collided 100 million years ago, the Alps began to form. This is how the salt mixed with clay, gypsum and polyhalite was lifted. The Alpine salt deposits are still moving today. When the rain and melt water that has penetrated the mountain hits a salt deposit, it dissolves sodium chloride and rises to the surface as a slightly saline spring. Wild animals used the acidic water. While hunting for them, people discovered the springs and used them to prepare their food and to water their livestock. When they added hot stones to the natural brine, crystals quickly formed, which they dried and stored for the winter. Later, salt was produced in metal pans fired with wood. A method that is still used industrially in salt production today.
In 1319, the first tunnel was dug at the location of an acid spring in Altaussee with the stone mountain horizon that still exists today. Back then, the miners could only extract ten centimeters of limestone per day. It took nine years until they came across the salt deposit, which is still being mined today – but now the around 60 miners use the most modern machines. Fresh water is piped into the mountain. It dissolves the salt from the rock and “dead rock” sinks to the ground. The resulting brine is sent to the saltworks and boiled until the water has evaporated and the salt remains. The salt pans used to be in Altaussee. Pipelines now transport the brine from the mines in Altaussee, Hallstatt and Bad Ischl to the saltworks in Ebensee for processing. The one from Hallstatt was built from wooden trunks starting in 1595 and is considered the oldest pipeline in the world. Around 1.5 million cubic meters of brine comes from Altaussee every year, and around 500,000 tons of salt are produced in Ebensee. Because the salt content in Altaussee is higher in places than elsewhere, valuable rock salt is also extracted by hand.
The salt mine has long been a tourist attraction. In 1797 Alexander von Humboldt was guided through the tunnels. In 1810 the guest book records a visit from Archduke Johann. Organized visits were possible for the common population from around 1900. In the 19th century, tourism developed into the region’s second economic mainstay. The first wealthy and famous people came for their “summer vacation” and had noble villas built around the lakes. Around 1900, many famous authors such as Hugo von Hofmannsthal, Arthur Schnitzler and Hermann Baar spent the summer in Altaussee. This idyll was abruptly interrupted in 1938 when Austria was annexed to Germany. A total of 29 villas belonging to Jewish owners were taken away and “Aryanized”. Nazi greats such as August Eigruber, Adolf Eichmann and Ernst Kaltenbrunner moved in. The salt mine was used as a bunker for looted art from all over Europe, which was collected for the planned Führer Museum in Linz. The Nazis would have almost destroyed the treasure when the Hitler Empire collapsed if courageous miners hadn’t prevented this. On May 8, 1945, the Americans came and ended Altaussee’s darkest chapter.
Today the mine is once again a popular tourist attraction under the title “Salzwelten” of Salinen Austria, alongside those in Hallstatt in Upper Austria and in Bad Dürrnberg south of Salzburg. 30,000 visitors come to Altaussee every year. The tour covers everything from today’s salt mining in Austria’s largest active salt mine to the rescue of artefacts during the Second World War. You can experience, among other things, the chapel dedicated to St. Barbara – the patron saint of miners – with bricks made of shimmering orange-red natural salt, fabulous leaching chambers, whizzing over a miner’s slide and a mirror-smooth salt lake, on whose stage Klaus Maria Brandauer and Philipp Hochmair have already appeared , as well as an award-winning show on the subject of Nazi-looted art. This topic should also play a role in the European Capital of Culture Salzkammergut 2024, in which Altaussee is one of 23 municipalities on board. In the show mine in Bad Dürrnberg you travel through several eras of salt production. A special specialty is also produced here: pyramid salt, which produces fine salt flakes – a delicacy that takes a lot of time to produce.
(S E R V I C E – www.salzkammergut-2024.at)
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