The lake promenade

Connection to the outside world

Go now to the end of Dr.-Friedrich- Morton-Weg and turn left on to Seestraße. Highlight 8 – “The lake promenade” – leads you back in the direction of the market square.

For centuries Hallstatt is only accessible via narrow mountain paths or by boat. In 1875 a road is built between Gosaumühle and Hallstatt to ease the delivery and dispatch of goods.

But this road ends shortly before the Evangelical Church, at around the height of where Hotel Kainz stands today. Here, all goods must be reloaded painstakingly on to hand carts or boats.

In 1890 it is decided that the road should be extended and the Lahn area should also be connected to Gosaumühlestraße. 7 houses, some of which stood on poles in the water, and the “Panzlbrücke”, a narrow bridge on the shore of the lake, have to be torn down.

At the beginning of the 1930s the number of cars is on the rise and allowed on Seestraße. There are also more and more tourists. Soon there are no more parking spaces on the lakeside.

Intensive discussions take place on the subject of widening Seestraße. But the population of Hallstatt decide against it in a referendum in December 1958. And so the Hallstatt tunnel, complete with parking spaces, as well as the bypass are built. Thanks to this decision the traditional appearance of Hallstatt, today a UNESCO World Heritage site, has been maintained.