If you were to ask a creative writing class to describe what was meant by a "Picture Postcard Town," the result would describe Hallstatt. It's located in the region called Salzkammergut in the alpine foothills of central Austria and, together with the 9,900 foot Dachstein Alp towering behind the village, has been one of Austria's UNESCO Cultural Heritage sites since 1997. The town is situated along the shore of the Hallstättersee. The "see" is actually a widening of the River Traun which flows into the Danube some 60 km (36 miles) downstream.

One may need several days to take in all of Hallstatt's spectacular natural beauty and amenities.
The real treasure of Hallstatt is its natural beauty. Rounding a bend in the two-lane road that leads into the town, the view is breathtaking ‹ a sparkling jewel dropped into our time directly from the 15th or 16th century.

At the center of the town is the market square, comparable to anything a Hollywood set designer could imagine. The main street leading to the square narrows, at times, to a six foot width. Tourists and sightseers create a bustling mood. In the square, vine covered houses hold window boxes dripping with flowers. The houses converge at the end of the square on the Restaurant Zauner where typical Hallstatter cuisine is offered.

In the late 19th Century a road was built to allow land access to Hallstatt. Before that, a bridle path and ferry service from the far shore were the only ways to visit the town. But even now, accessibility is limited by the fact that the main road leads through a tunnel, built in 1966, without ever entering the actual town.

With a current population of only 947, vehicular traffic into the town is regulated. In order to drive into the village, it's necessary to get an electronic "gate pass" from an attendant at the edge of town. This allows your car one entry into the village ‹ and you can get out through a gate at the other end of the narrow lane that serves as the main thoroughfare.

Hallstatt has a history that goes back some 7,000 years. It was here, on this inland slope that prehistoric men discovered salt, one of life's essentials. In the high valley near Hallstatt is an archaeological dig showing clear evidence of the region's importance to Celtic, Roman and Medieval eras. The name of the town is derived from the Celtic word for salt ‹ "Hall." Early tribes, dating to about 2500 BC, were present here. When they discovered the salt, they established the village. Trade routes were organized and the salt was shipped via the river systems to points as far as North Africa. Ceramic shards, for example, show strong Greek influences in their design.

Because of the importance of archaeological finds here, the transition from the late bronze age to the early iron age has been designated "The Hallstatt Period" to describe the era from 800 BC to about 400 BC.

In 2002, a new museum was opened displaying many of these artifacts and reflecting the different periods of Hallstatt's archaeological history. The Hallstatt period was followed by the later La Tène period, a time of Celtic dominance in the region until about the beginning of the Christian era. It was during this time that trade brought influences from southern Europe ‹ from Greece and Phoenicia ‹ into central Europe. Then, the Romans arrived and recognized the value of the salt which was called the white gold of the ancient times. While coastal nations had no problem getting salt by evaporating sea water, those countries that were landlocked valued salt highly. The literal "mountain of salt" has supported the economic life of Hallstatt for many centuries.

The ever present history is even displayed in a Hallstatt souvenir shop. In the process of excavating under the shop to create basement storage space, the shop owner discovered the foundations of a Celtic house. His plans for the shop were altered to allow for lighting the old stones and covering them in glass rather than concrete flooring that was used over the rest of the shop floor. They are now visible to shoppers.

The actual UNESCO site includes, in addition to Hallstatt, the towns of Obertraun and Russbach, as well as Dachstein with it's glaciers and ice caves. But Hallstatt is doubly designated as both a cultural and a natural site. One reason for this is the working salt mine high on the side of the mountain that dominates the town. A funicular takes passengers up to the mine and the owners offer tours showing how water is forced into the mine and dissolves the salt. The resulting brine is then pumped out through a 24 mile pipeline to a refinery. Though modernized, the mine and the pipeline are the world's oldest operating salt mining facilities.

On the side of the mountain ‹ at the head of the funicular are many of the series of archaeological digs that can be explored during a mountainside walk. These are the sites from which the artifacts were recovered and which caused the archaeological era to be named for Hallstatt. Both the mine tour and the archaeological sites require buying a ticket on the funicular ‹ unless you're inclined to a hike up the path to the top of the hill.

The town boasts two churches and in the predominantly Roman Catholic Austria, Hallstatt is unique in that its population is about evenly divided between Protestants and Catholics. It's one of the few places in Europe to have a "charnel house" ‹ a place where the skulls and bones of deceased residents are displayed and identified. Burial sites in the mountain rock are hard to come by, and cemetery space in the church graveyard is used for a relatively short period of time. After about 20 years, the bones are dug up, placed in the ossuary on the consecrated ground within the graveyard, and the grave is then reused.

In wintertime, skiers and snowboarders flock to the town to use the 11 km (almost 7 miles) of ski slopes that run as much as 2,100 meters (1.3 miles) downhill. During the summer, fishing in the lake is popular and licenses are easy to arrange, but scuba diving is the real attraction. Stories that circulated after the second World War told how Nazis dumped their hoards of gold into the deep waters of the lakes in this region. None has been found, but locals and scuba divers from all over the world enjoy the hunt to locate this sunken treasure that was supposed to resurrect the Nazi dream of world conquest. This is the stuff from which fictional thrillers are made.

Runners participate in a 21 km marathon around the lake in May and a regatta of the boats anchored on the lake celebrate Corpus Christi day in June. Beaches along the lake shore cater to swimmers ‹ both with and without swimsuits. Within a few kilometers of Hallstatt are the Dachstein ice caves, discovered in the 19th century by Frederich Simony. The caves are open to visitors and experienced guides can lead you into the mountain and through tours into the eerie ice formations within the caves. There are also guided adventure treks into remote parts of the cave. Bring breadcrumbs to insure that you find your way back, warm clothes for the icy hikes and batteries for your flashlight and your camera's flash. The experience within the caves is truly unique.

Like folks living in many of the UNESCO sites, Hallstatters are proud of the designation but, on the other hand, concerned that the quaint ambiance of their town might become unbalanced by being overwhelmed by tourists. To really appreciate everything Hallstatt has to offer ‹ to breath its pure mountain air and drink its mountain water, one really needs several days in the town. There are, perhaps a total of 700 guest beds in the town's hotels and inns. Clearly, Hallstatt is not ready to host the Olympics. Our stay in the "Gasthof Simony" (named for the discoverer of the Dachstein caves) was very comfortable. Yet with 20 rooms, this is one of the larger facilities in town.

A visit to Hallstatt is a rare combination of experiences. Part backdrop for a romantic operetta, part living history and part restful interlude, its beauty and diversity gives the hectic 21st Century traveler a place to pause and regroup.

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