Hallstatt Things to Do

If you want to see a very special old custom, why not go to the Catholic Cathedral.
First of all, you will see a huge hall with two altars, the sculpture of Jesus and the Virgin and then you will be taken into the Charnel House that used to be traditional more than a hundred years ago.
The so-called Beinhaus (charnel house) in the yard of the Catholic parish church is very special.
It is full of painted and signed skulls and human bones.
Those are the ashes of the people that died in the 18th and 19th centuries.
The ashes had to be excavated and put in that house for want of land.
The town had and still has very little land area, that’s why there was such a strange custom.

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Maria Himmelfahrt (Mary Ascension) is the catholic church of Hallstatt and the more famous one. It sits on a hill above the village, a beautifully idyllic location. It is also called "Maria am Berg" (Mary at the mountain). It is of gothic style and was built in 1505. It has two naves with two different altars. During the course of history it changed between being catholic and protestant several times.

The "Hallstätter Marienaltar" (see pictures 3 and 4) is one of the most famous works of art in Austria. This altar is of gothic style as well and was created between 1510 and 1520. Most of it is gold-plated. It has four movable wings and thus is arranged differently at several times during the ecclesiastical year. It is ten and a half meters high and five meters wide and there are three different positions:

1. Christmas time: From advent until lent - the inner wings are closed and the altar displays the meeting of Anna, Mary's mother and her husband Joachim (after a legend from the 13th century), the meeting of Mary and Elizabeth, the circumcision of Jesus and the Three Wise Men.

2. Lent: All wings are closed and the altar looks a lot more plain, there is no abundant decorum. The pictures show twelve year-old Jesus in the temple, the wedding in Kana, Jesus and Martha and the ascension of Christ.

3. Season: This position is only shown at special days as it is the most luxurious one, when all the wings are opened. The altar the shows Mary's birth, the Annunciation, Jesus in the temple, and Mary's death on the open wings, and Saint Catherine, Saint Barbara and Mary in the middle.

I must say that I personally was fascinated by the art work, but I did not find it that beautiful because all the gold and all the squiggles are just too much for me! The church itself I really loved, it is just like out of a story in this perfect location!

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Next to the church there is a beautiful cemetary. The graves are very small because at this location at the slopes of the mountain, there is not much space. It is nice to wander around the graves though, I like the iron-wrought crosses very much.

Because there is so little space, the dead people buried here are exhumed after twenty to thirty years. There bones are cleaned and the skulls are painted and the name and dates of the person written on them. Most are painted in a pretty folklore style. You can see the bones in the carnel - there are about sixhundred skulls and two thousand bones. They are displayed and arranged in groups by family. This is the biggest collection of skulls in the whole world and Hallstatt is the only place where the tradition of skull painting is still followed, although not by all inhabitants of the village. In the 19th century, it was done all around the Austrian alps.

The carnel is located in the groundfloor of St. Michaelskapelle, a small and pretty chapel from the 12th century. The first floor is the actual chapel and has a gthic glass painting and a baroque altar. Don’t forget to have a look here as well!

Sorry, I did not take any pictures of the carnel.

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Hallstatt's marketplace is located in the centre of the village, this is where the little streets and alleys meet. It is a cute place with an interesting fountain and plague column, surrounded by some shops and restaurants. There are some benches where you can sit down and have a rest. Just a lovely place!

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Hallstatt lies at a beautiful lake, called Hallstätter See. The lake is and was used for fishing, but today a main use is of course tourism. Enclosed by the mountains, the lake looks quite like being from a story. At the end of the village centre, a promenade starts and it is very nice to stroll along here. On the one hand side you have some pretty alpine houses with wooden decorum, and above that the high slopes of the mountains, while on the other side there is the calm lake with maybe some small boats.

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Hallstatt is a very pretty village and it is just nice to stroll along the little alleys and have a look. There are a few shops, although not too many, and although there are of course a lot of tourists, the atmosphere is still very authentic and original. The are literally small mazes of alleys and you can see a lot of houses painted in nice colours and also many wood structures.

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The protestants did not have an easy life in the history of Hallstatt. They had no chance against the powers of Salzburg's archbishops and when they tried to rebel in the 17th century, their leaders were sentenced to death and their houses burnt down. In 1734, three hundred protestants from Hallstatt and surroundings were deported to Transsilvania.
It was only in 1781 that they were allowed to openly show their religion.

Christuskirche (Christ's Church) was built in 1861, shortly after the protestant religion had beend fully equated to the catholic one by Franz Joseph I. It is of new gothic style and of course it cannot be compared to the catholic church when it comes to luxury, but it still is worth a visit. It certainly is a distinctive mark of Hallstatt. It can be seen from nearly everywhere around town and influences the face of the village very much.

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You can see some interesting excavations and archaelogical in the "cellar" located under the sports equipment shop Juno. The site was discovered by accident when they wanted to construct a new cellar in 1987 and suddenly found a whole lot of things and walls, the earliest from 500BC (Iron Age). The "cellar" is now 300 square metres large and shows pottery, tools, tiles, walls, an old canal and many other items. The youngest finds are from a smithy that existed here in the 18th and 19th century, the oldest from the Iron Age. There is some Roman pottery and also Roman walls.

There is also a small museum about Hallstatt's history and about artists who worked in the area, showing some of their works and writings. Descriptions are in German and English.

Entry is free!

Open 9.00am til 6.pm from monday until friday, 9.00am til 1.00pm on saturdays.