Salzwelten Salzburg

Useful Information

Location:	Ramsaustraße 3, 5422 Bad Dürrnberg. Salzburg-Bad Dürrnberg, near Hallein. A 10 Tauernautobahn exit Hallein. (47.667250, 13.090034)
Open:	FEB to MAR daily 9-15. APR to OCT daily 9-17. NOV to 06-JAN daily 9-15. Begin of the last tour. [2025]
Fee:	Adults EUR 34, Children (4-15) EUR 16. Groups (20+): Adults EUR 32, Children (4-19) EUR 16. Kelten.erlebnis.Berg: Adults EUR 7.50, Children (4-15) EUR 3. [2025]
Classification:	Salt Mine
Light:	LED
Dimension:
Guided tours:	D=90 min, L=1,000 m, MinAge=4. V=25,000/a [1928] V=170,000/a [1969] V=140,000/a [1980]
Photography:	allowed
Accessibility:	no
Bibliography:	Gerhard Mayrhofer (1998): Die touristische Nutzung der österreichischen Salzbergwerke. Die Standorte Hallstatt, Hallein, Altaussee und Bad Ischl im Vergleich, Diplomarb. Univ. Salzburg 1998. 120 Bl. (maschinschr.)
Address:	Salzwelten Salzburg/Bad Dürrnberg, Ramsaustraße 3, A-5422 Bad Dürrnberg, Tel: +43-6245-83511-15, Tel: +43-6245-83511-22. Salzwelten GmbH, Salzbergstraße 21, A-4830 Hallstatt, Tel: +43-6132-200-2400. E-mail:
As far as we know this information was accurate when it was published (see years in brackets), but may have changed since then. Please check rates and details directly with the companies in question if you need more recent info.

History

600 BC	Beginning of underground salt mining by the Celts.
1607	first guided tours of the mine during the reign of Wolf Dietrich von Raitenau (*1559-✝1617).
1989	Salt mine closed.
2005	Renamed to Salzwelten Salzburg.
2013	Kelten.Erlebnis.Berg opened to the public.
2021	Show mine completely remodelled, both the mine tour and the areas above ground.

Geologie

Salt is an evaporite and is deposited in a cut-off sea basin when the seawater evaporates. If fresh seawater flows into the basin, for example due to a storm, it is partially dissolved again, but then further salt is deposited. If a river flows into the basin, it can carry clays with it, which contaminate the salt. The deposit on the Dürrnberg is around 1,700 metres long and 1,000 metres wide, with a thickness of 350 to 400 metres. The salt was obviously deposited below sea level and uplifted by the Alpine orogeny. It is a mixture of clay, loam and marl, probably also due to the associated tectonic shifts, with an average rock salt content of 50 %.

Description

Salzwelten Salzburg (Salt Worlds Salzburg) is an artificial name the marketing concept of the owner. The show mine, which has been famous for decades, was merged in 2005 with various other attractions in the surrounding area. Originally, this was a co-operation with the Keltenmuseum Hallein (Hallein Celtic Museum) and a themed hiking trail on salt mining called Via Salis. However, this has since been replaced by a new open-air museum right next to the show mine. Kelten.Erlebnis.Berg, a reconstructed Celtic village called Salina, was built together with the Hallein Celtic Museum in 2013. In 2021, the show mine was completely redesigned, both the mine tour and the above-ground areas. The concept is to present the entire process of salt extraction, from the formation of the deposit to historical and modern mining and salt production. Well, that's actually exactly what all show mines do, but marketing doesn't seem to shy away from selling platitudes as innovations. Since then, the salt manufactory has been demonstrating how the brine used to be evaporated into salt, and the good, hand-produced table salt is sold at a top price.

In Bad Dürrnberg, a suburb of Hallein, the salt mine is located on the western side of the mountain, with a beautiful view of Salzburg. The mine was originally called the Salzbergwerk Dürrnberg (Dürrnberg salt mine). As Dürrnberg belongs to Hallein, it was also called the Salzbergwerk Hallein (Hallein salt mine). The name Hallein is derived from the Celtic word hal, which means salt. The rock contains salt deposits, groundwater that comes into contact with it dissolves it and becomes salty. There were salty springs on the Dürrnberg, which have probably been used since prehistoric times and were also important for game. Underground mining has been carried out here since Celtic times, probably since around 600 BC. This makes it very old, but much younger than neighbouring Hallstatt, for example.

Mining continued over the centuries and was modernised time and again. Wooden push carts were used in 1596, and were replaced by the "Dürrnberger Hund" around 1818. In 1895, the mine railway became double-track with a 500 mm gauge. Originally, the loaded wagons rolled 2 km out of the mountain under the force of gravity. However, they then had to be pushed back up the tunnel empty by human power. The Gebus mine locomotive was not used until 1951.

The show mine also has a very long tradition, with the first guided tours taking place as early as the 17th century. However, only for selected people at the invitation of the archbishop’s mining lords. Nevertheless, this was an important source of income for the mine operators. Due to secularisation, the operator changed and the tours no longer took place until the middle of the 19th century. The popularity increased steadily and before the First World War the number of visitors rose to several thousand a year. After the war, the number of visitors rose to up to 25,000 annually, but this ended with the Great Depression. The show mine was closed during the Second World War and reopened in 1947. However, visitor numbers did not rise again until the Salzbergbahn, a cable car from Hallein to Dürrnberg, was completed in 1952 with funds from the Marshall Plan.

Salt is extracted either by mechanical mining, the salt is relatively soft and easy to mine. The water from brine springs is vaporised in wood-fired wrought-iron pans in so-called Sudhaus ('wich'). This is called open-pan salt making. So-called "wet mining" was invented on the Dürrnberg in the Middle Ages. Water is channelled into a large, low room where it dissolves the salt from the rock. This artificial brine is vaporised in the same way as the natural brine in the Sudhaus. The salt was transported in dissolved form through pipes and channels. This was particularly practical in Dürrnberg because the salt was heavily contaminated and therefore anyway had to be freed from the clay it contained by dissolving it.