I have been once in Halstatt, a beautiful town situated on an artificial promontory (Mülbach), resulting from the dumping of mining debris, and on the strip between the mount Salzberg and the lake; the southern part (18th century) is also called In der Lahn and it’s at the mouth of the valley of Echterntal. In Halstatt are nice tall and narrow Gothic houses (also boat-houses on the lake) that have stone lower storeys with barrel vaults and upper wooden storeys (only a few has saddleback flat roofs with wooden planks or shingles), like on the triangular market square, where is also the column of the Trinity. The main church of St. Mary is constructed on a hill in Gothic style (only the roof and the spire are Baroque; some elements are Romanesque) and has nice windows, a portal, two naves, one apse, sculptures, frescos, vaults and altarpieces also by Lienhart Astl. Near that is the Chapel of St. Michael and the Carmel House, where are the skulls and the bones (marked with names) that couldn’t have space in the cemetery. In Halstatt are also the Baroque Mount of Olives Chapel, the Calvary Chapel, the neo-Gothic protestant church, the Baroque almshouses with a chapel and the Tower of Rudolph that protected the salt workings.

I was a little bit disappointed by this town because it hasn't important monuments, but its architecture is however of high quality. It is worth to be visited if you are near Salzburg (if you go there you must leave the car outside the centre), but I don't think it justifies the inscription under cultural criteria, but rather under the natural criteria (and with a largest part of the Salzkammergut region), under which is not inscribed, because of the beauty of the natural monuments (even if I haven't seen them) and landscape.

Photo: Halstatt - Church of St. Mary