Why You Should Visit Austria’s Salzkammergut Now!

Why You Should Visit Austria’s Salzkammergut Now!

Picture a town of quintessential Alpine bliss. Houses nestled into the mountains. Maybe a lake. Does that image look something like THIS? Yeah. I thought so! Let’s explore the Austrian Salzkammergut region… Beautiful. …which is a 2024 European Capital of Culture. There is so much on offer here, from gorgeous mountain scenery, local delicacies, a plethora of cultural offerings and lots of history and tradition. I’ll be checking out some amazing installations by artists from all over the world. Making stops in between to learn about the region’s history and try a very special beer. Let’s start here in Hallstatt and then we will making our way over to Bad Ischl. The Salzkammergut region lies in Austria, on the northern edge of the Alps. Hallstatt and Bad Ischl are probably the best-known places in the region. The remote town of Hallstatt is world-famous. It’s literally tucked into the mountainside, but easily accessible by train and then a short ferry ride across the lake. There are no cars allowed inside the town itself. Hallstatt has less than 800 inhabitants, but around a million visitors a year! Instagram and a Korean Netflix series have made the place world-famous. Okay, it’s absolutely georgeous. I get the hype. Yes, it might me a bit annoying that there are quite a lot of people here. But, I mean, can you blame them? This town is the perfect place to just take it all in and wander through. There are so many beautiful little lanes and alleyways. The church is a highlight, built into the rocks. As is the town square here, with its old buildings, many of which date back hundreds of years. Well it doesn’t matter where you are in this town, you don’t get sick of the view. And you can even see the town from above. This gondola takes you up into the mountains for a magnificent view of Hallstatt from the air. It also gives you access to the town’s old salt mines, which have huge historical significance here. Hallstatt was named a UNESCO World Heritage Site in 1997. World Heritage View. Let’s see if it’s worthy of its title. Okay, admittedly, I did pay 22 euros to take the gondola ride up here, which does feel like quite a lot. However, you can also walk. It takes about two hours. It gets up to you to decide what is more valuable – your time or your money? Either way: the view from the top is definitely worth it. Well, since I paid the money to get up here I might as well walk a little further to take a look at what the region is actually famous for – old salt mines. Salzkammergut directly translates to salt domain. This area has 7,000 years of salt history. And mining began in the Bronze Age. But the mines do have a pretty tumultuous history. The Nazis also used them to hide looted art during the Second World War. More on that later! Before my time in Hallstatt comes to an end, the mayor has kindly agreed to talk to me about overtourism in the area. Time to try some local cuisine by the water. This is like ultimate mountain comfort food. Broth with cheese dumpling and pancakes. So, so good. Warming, comforting, the best thing you can eat here. Okay, we are leaving this beautiful town behind and heading to Bad Ischl. The journey is less than half an hour by train. If, like me, you’re planning on visiting both towns, I’d recommend staying in Bad Ischl, where you’ll be able to find more budget-friendly accommodation. Bad Ischl lies in the centre of the Salzkammergut. It’s a spa town, and was also one of the biggest spots for stolen Nazi art during WWII. And it was a summer refuge of the Hapsburg emperor. My first stop here in Bad Ischl is the Kaiservilla, or Emperor’s Villa. Emperor Franz Joseph and Empress Elisabeth, better known as Sissi, spent a lot of time here. I mean, it is a beautiful view and it would be even nicer if it wasn’t this cloudy because you can just see the tips of the mountains up there still covered in snow. Gorgeous. A lot of history went down in this room. This is where Franz Joseph signed the declaration of war on Serbia in 1914. Which ultimately lead to the First World War. Franz Joseph loved to hunt. And the walls of this villa are covered in his ‘trophies’. The villa is still owned by Habsburg descendants, who actually live in half of the house, while the other half and the garden are open to visitors. And whilst we’re on the topic of royalty, it’s time for a visit to the Zauner Confectionary. This is one of the few places allowed to sell sweets to the Imperial Court. So this is the famous Zauner Stollen, which is actually a huge slab of chocolate. But we’re just getting a couple of slices to try. That’s so good. But yeah, that one slice is definitely going to be enough. That’s so rich. It’s a praline based sweet treat that Empress Sissi herself used to eat. Time to explore some of the cultural exhibitions on offer here while being a European cultural capital. The town has made a point of repurposing old spaces that were more or less unused, and is giving them new life this year. Which is exactly what they’ve done with this old factory. This huge factory used to be where a lot of the salt in the region was produced. And now the empty space is being repurposed as a huge exhibition hall. The theme is, fittingly, salt. Artists from all over the world have their works on display here. This piece by a Japanese artist is made up of six tonnes of salt. If you look at it long enough and you let your eyes on focus, it does get a little bit trippy. You can even give it a go yourself, although it’s not quite as easy as you might think! The exhibits use salt to create works of art that focus on the impact of humankind on nature. They aim to create awareness around sustainability. I’m meeting Elisabeth Schweeger to find out more about the impact the status of cultural capital is having on the region. We have really to rethink how to do with this region, how we can keep young people there. How to create perspectives for them, jobs, etc. And how can we build in the future that we don’t make nature in a bad mood. We need it for the next generation. So to construct the future, we need to look back and to be clear about our history. And then we understand maybe what happens now, so that we can really develop strategies. There’s a lot of history in this region. So does that history produce any challenges for the promotion of this area as a cultural capital? After the declining of the monarchy, of course, it was a pity that the National Socialists make really terrible things here in the region. And of course, we’re talking about this with huge exhibitions, for example, for all the artworks which Hitler takes for him. And the workers saved all the art pieces. The salt mines were the perfect hiding places for artworks such as these from the Venetian painter Titian and the Norwegian Edvard Munch. Before my day here in the region draws to a close, I have one last stop. This is my final stop of the day. It’s a castle, but it’s also a brewery celebrating the launch of a beer that was designed in collaboration with a Nigerian artist. Sounds pretty cool, right? Let’s go check it out. Pop up events like this one will take place throughout the year. Nigerian artist Emeka Ogboh incorporates culinary experiences into his art, and he collaborated with the Eggenberg brewery here near Bad Ischl to create a signature beer called Åndas, aka different, for the region’s cultural capital status. And it does taste totally different! It’s a good fusion. Cheers! For me as an African black person, I realize that diversity is not such big here. And typically diversity is a subject that will be used politically as a divide. But here we’re interested in using it as a bridge. So beer is part of my portfolio in my artworks. And I found a very good brewery to work with, Eggenberg. They are very experimental and they are very open to ideas. So the idea is to create this product that will let us dive into the whole concept of diversity here. So it’s called Åndas, which means different. The beer is paired with Austrian-Nigerian fusion food. Wow, so many flavors. Yum. Wow, what an amazing way to end a day that’s been filled with incredible nature and rich cultural experiences as well. Honestly, the Salzkammergut is really living up to its cultural capital status. I’d seriously recommend it. Definitely worth a visit. Cheers.

Hallstatt in Austria’s Salzkammergut region is a world-famous tourist magnet. Its popularity is likely to increase this year because the region is holding the title of European Capital of Culture in 2024. Hannah Hummel traveled to Hallstatt and the spa town of Bad Ischl to find out what special events and activities await visitors this year.

00:00 Intro
00:46 Where the Salzkammergut region is located
01:02 Hallstatt
02:16 Gondola ride to the World Heritage View
03:42 Meet Hallstatt’s mayor Alexander Scheutz
05:03 Try local food
05:28 Spa town Bad Ischl
05:58 Kaiservilla
07:09 Zauner confectionary
08:03 Exhibition at Altes Sudhaus
09:24 Meet Elisabth Schweeger, Artistic director of European Capital of Culture Salzkammergut, 10:17 Looted art
10:57 Eggenberg brewery

CREDITS:
Report: Hannah Hummel
Camera: Marco Borowski
Editing: Caroline Haberland
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