Rock salt bench
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The rock salt bench

Resting place for the carrying women

The rock salt bench is a reminder of the carrying women of Hallstatt who would bring the salt directly broken out of the rock twice a day from the salt mountain to the valley in baskets on their backs. Before going up the 500 m high salt mountain they are supposed to have rested on this bench. And after having made it down again, heavily laden with blocks of salt.

At the same time the rock salt bench is a symbol of the social situation in Hallstatt in the 19th century. Salt extraction and trade lose their significance hugely and many of the miners’ wives are forced to take on work themselves.

Despite the dangers and incredible physical exertion required the women are dependent on their job. When men take over this work with sleds in the winter of 1889, the women who are prevented from doing so protest angrily. Arriving in the valley with their load, the men are upbraided as “bread thieves”.

The rock salt bench can be found on Dr.-Friedrich-Morton-Weg immediately before the path descends in the direction of Seestraße.

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