Looking at the Hallstatt-Dachstein mountain beauty is a real treat. It is in the Salzkammergut and, by extension, the Eastern Alps. Narrow valleys give way to huge mountains that rise quickly. Since the Middle Ages, salt mining has made it rich, especially in the town of Hallstatt, whose name comes from a word that means “salt settlement” and shows what its main job was.

It was planned to make salt in this area as early as the Middle Bronze Age, in the late 2nd millennium BC. At that time, natural brine was put in jars and dried out. Beginning at the end of the late Bronze Age, underground salt mining began. It picked up again in the 8th century BC. At that time, history records showed that the Iron Age society was thriving, stratified, and very well organized, with trade routes all over Europe. The Hallstatt Culture is the name given to this group of people.Back in Roman times, people dug for salt, and it began again in the 1400s. In the 1600s, the Austrian Crown directly controlled and handled the large upland forests. They provided a lot of wood for the mines and to dry out the salt. In 1750, a fire burned the wooden homes that made up the town. They were rebuilt in the late Baroque style.

In prehistoric times, sheep and horses grazed on the higher pastures in the summer. This is known as transhumance. People who live in the valley still have rights to some farming areas today. People who wrote novels like Adalbert Stifler and dramatic poets like Franz Grillparzer “discovered” the beauty of the Alpine scenery in the early 1800s. Most of the best Biedermeier school paintings also showed this. When they left, tourists came, which is why hotels and salt pools were built for them. The land is one of a kind because it is full of complicated natural forces that scientists find very interesting. It has also been an important part of human history, as shown by the farming and mining that has happened there for thousands of years and the works of art and literature that have been written about its beauty and unity.