VRoss
0
What do you do when there is no more land to bury the dead? You improvise
-
Welcome to the Two Wheeled Texans community! 
Feel free to hang out and lurk as long as you like. However, we would like to encourage you to register so that you can join the community and use the numerous features on the site. After registering, don't forget to post up an introduction!
Hallstatt -- between the lake and the hard place
- Thread starter VRoss
- Start date
VRoss
0
This tiny town in the Salzkammergut (Lake) region of Austria has wedged itself between the rock and the lake so tight, locals had to build a passage through the attics to allow lake access. It's neat although somewhat crowded by tourists. Here are a few pictures.
VRoss
0
I guess this one is pretty self-explanatory. Whatever your destination is, the direction of travel is up. I guess Salzburg is up and so is Rome. Got the idea?
VRoss
0
In fact, before they blasted a tunnel through the rock the only way to reach the place was by a)boat b)long walk through the mountains.
The fact that the city traces its history to pre-Romans time speaks of the value of salt. Both Hallstatt and the bigger Salzburg thrived due to the salt trade monopoly. Ancient people dug for salt and buried enough dead here that there is an archaelogical period named after the town (Hallstatt period). Gauls mined salt here before the Romans came and took over the management and the lakefront properties. It was fairly peaceful takeover as the locals kept mining salt and had most of the empire priviledges except the citizenship itself (Green Card?). In fact the locals kept at it way past the Roman collapse and up until the late 1990s or so. Not sure if the mine(s) are active or not still...
The fact that the city traces its history to pre-Romans time speaks of the value of salt. Both Hallstatt and the bigger Salzburg thrived due to the salt trade monopoly. Ancient people dug for salt and buried enough dead here that there is an archaelogical period named after the town (Hallstatt period). Gauls mined salt here before the Romans came and took over the management and the lakefront properties. It was fairly peaceful takeover as the locals kept mining salt and had most of the empire priviledges except the citizenship itself (Green Card?). In fact the locals kept at it way past the Roman collapse and up until the late 1990s or so. Not sure if the mine(s) are active or not still...
VRoss
0
Anyhow, the cemetry space was at the premium. A practical solution was devised, where the bones of the dead would be exumed several (10?) years after the burial and then bleached by the sun and the moon (don't ask, that's how they described it to me). The last step was to paint the skulls with the flowers and the names of the deceased and stack them by family names, like this
The last person to get her skull on display died in 1995.
The last person to get her skull on display died in 1995.
VRoss
0
And that's pretty much it. you can walk both streets in what, 15 minutes. Now accessible by car/bike over some pretty fun twisties. I even enjoyed them in a cage.
BIG A
0
Beautiful pictures!!!
VRoss
0
I don't think these actually carry over the feeling of being tightly squeezed between the cliff and the lake that is so vivid in person. There is what I remember feeling and there are these. Alias, they are not the same. I am not much a photographer, even my wife does not hide that from me. I'm sure there is a trick to correctly capturing these sort of shots, it's just that I haven't learned it and would have likely not used it with a stroller on hand and a very independent 3 y.o flying low altitude search and destroy missions 
. It is a tribute to consumer cameras of today, that you can basically push a stroller with one hand while taking pictures with the other...
. It is a tribute to consumer cameras of today, that you can basically push a stroller with one hand while taking pictures with the other...