The Eysselsberg Crypt

An eccentric’s last resting place

The rich salt administrator Baron Christoph Eyssl von Eysselsberg, who has a crypt installed for himself at the parish church in Hallstatt, is said to have been restless. The entrance to the crypt can be found at the back of the church. It is here that the baron is laid to rest in 1668.

The will Eysselsberg leaves behind is also quite eccentric: every 50 years his corpse, in its coffin, should be removed from the crypt, carried around the church and subsequently brought across the lake to his residence at Castle Grub. Apparently this wish is carried out until the middle of the century before last.

Death is omnipresent in the crypt’s chapel. As you can see from the small altar decorated with skulls wearing imperial and papal crowns.

If you look closely you will see that the skulls on the floor tiles have ears. As if to say: be careful what you say about the dead, they can hear you!