Transporting salt

The way of the white gold

The Salzkammergut is the oldest industrial landscape in Austria. It produces the hit export which counts as one of the most important industrial goods from Upper Austria until well into the 19th century: salt. As a daily conservative it is indispensable and therefore of great value.

Until the 13th century salt is strenuously knocked out of the rocks by hand. But then a new technique revolutionises the extraction of white gold; salt is released from the rock using water and the natural brine is transported to the saltworks through pipelines.

There in great vats or evaporation pans the water is again separated from the salt by heat. Thereafter begins the long and difficult transportation of the salt from the manufacturer to market and consumer. And because reinforced roads are still a rarity in the Middle Ages, the valuable cargo is carried by ship on the waterways.

Visit the salt mine at Hallstatt’s Salzwelten and discover more exciting facts about the history of white gold!