2023-11-26 08:14:46
The salt mountain sends its cool breath towards you. Eight degrees Celsius. On foot, over old rails, you go deep into the visitor tunnel of the Hallstatt Salt Mine. Salt crystals glitter on the wooden beam supports, top and side. Here, in the Hallstatt high valley, salt has been mined for 7,000 years.
The “white gold” made the Salzkammergut rich and shows the way for group tours through the self-proclaimed oldest salt mine in the world: with two replica miners’ slides that you can slide down and a colorful sound-light show on the underground lake. The participants, including many Asians, are enthusiastic about the infotainment and fun.
Actually, neither the salt mine nor the picturesque Hallstatt with its 750 inhabitants, which on some days sees around 10,000 guests, need more advertising and traffic. But overtourism will be partially unavoidable in 2024. Because then the entire Alpine region of Bad Ischl-Salzkammergut presents itself as the European Capital of Culture. 23 municipalities are grouped together under the misleading term “city”.
Source: Infographic The World
Spread throughout the year and scattered over an area of around 110 by 50 kilometers – in parts of Upper Austria and a corner of Styria – there will be around 200 projects with 500 special events from the end of January. In addition, there are a similar number of appointments that occur regularly in the area anyway. All in all, a promising peak of culture that is worth at least one trip.
More than traditional costumes and brass music in the Salzkammergut
Stefan Heinisch is already looking beyond 2024. “It shouldn’t be a one-year festival, but more, namely a regional development impulse that will last for years,” says the Capital of Culture Communications Manager. The 48-year-old knows about the problems in the countryside, whether it’s a shortage of skilled workers or vacant buildings, and is hoping for a lasting boost.
In addition, “a different understanding of culture” should be transported to the region, which is “not just limited to traditional costume clubs or brass bands”. “Culture is the new salt” is the clever slogan for the festival year. The “old” salt gave the Salzkammergut its name and was so sought after that in the Middle Ages salt pirates stole valuable shiploads on Lake Traunsee.
The Salzkammergut is a region of rivers and lakes, deep valleys and majestic peaks, hiking and cycling trails popular with holidaymakers, houses with decorated wooden verandas, and a self-confident breed of people. The 19th century brought a turning point: especially in Ischl, the provincial character was over, as the community became a health resort and “imperial town”. Emperor Franz Joseph I became engaged to Elisabeth of Bavaria, better known as Sisi, here in 1853. The community has proudly called itself Bad Ischl since 1906.
The royal couple later resided in the local imperial villa, where today you can wander through a museum-like world of massive furniture, candlesticks, paintings, silk wallpaper and hunting trophies. “In the summer it was ruled from here; Ischl was the second capital of the monarchy,” says guide Helga Peer.
The study of Franz Joseph I in the imperial villa in Bad Ischl
Quelle: Getty Images
The royals were followed in droves by important personalities, and the Vienna Summer Resort Society met in Ischl. Court organist Anton Bruckner played the organ at festive occasions of the imperial family in the St. Nicholas Church, and Franz Lehar composed his “Merry Widow”. Writer Mark Twain vacationed in Ischl in 1898, and Theodor Herzl, founder of political Zionism, wrote his first works in the town.
A performance by Conchita Wurst in Bad Ischl
In 2024, however, the history of the Austro-Hungarian Empire will be looked at anew: In Bad Ischl there will be the project “k(ritisch) u(nd) k(ontrovers)”, which aims to do away with kitsch and clichés and question the romanticizing Habsburg myth. With information steles, with audio and image documents. For example, they should explain that in the summer of 1914, of all places, the Kaiser declared war on Serbia in Bad Ischl – the First World War began.
Things will be happier on January 20, 2024, opening day. Full-beard diva Tom Neuwirth alias Conchita Wurst will be performing in Bad Ischl; in the spa park, a thousand-throated choir under the direction of Hubert von Goisern will “transform the noise of the world into music with yodeling and shouting,” reports the festival committee.
On the same day, the former brewhouse opens its doors to “Art with Salt and Water”, the main exhibition of the year. Curator Gottfried Hattinger, who appreciates the atmosphere of old factory buildings, stages artists from a dozen countries with original sculptures, installations and video art.
The “Volxfest” experiments with traditions and folk music
Source: Franzi Kreis
Ambitious initiatives run like a common thread through the year and the region. Like the “Volxfest”, which aims to experimentally rejuvenate traditional music, dance and costume.
Like the “Great World Space Trail” – an audio tour with 15 stations that you can hike with headphones from the Bad Ischl parish church to the Ischler Hut in the Totes Gebirge. The project is long-term and should be offered for at least ten years. It still remains to be seen whether “in the stony desert of the high Alpine plateau” “humans and space can actually find each other,” as the announcement grandly promises.
The year as cultural capital should have a long-term impact
The “Wirtshauslabor” sounds forward-looking. Accompanied by innkeeper Christoph Held, who runs a restaurant on the Siriuskogl above Bad Ischl, students from the local tourism school confront the decline in pubs. In 2024, they will be responsible for reviving the abandoned train station inn on 30 days of operation. This project had to overcome a number of bureaucratic hurdles because most of the participants are not yet of legal age.
With a view of the Dead Mountains: The “Great World Space Trail” is designed as an audio tour
What: Christoph Mayer
The ceramics city of Gmunden is planning for the long term. This is showcased in the new Stadtgarten art district, which will grow out of the former city gardening area – previously a wasteland, now the city’s new cultural forum, which will remain in existence beyond 2024. There will be three ceramic art exhibitions here between April and November, some with top-class works by Ai Weiwei, Miquel Barceló and Pablo Picasso.
Winter tips for Austria:
Andreas Murray, managing director of the Traunsee-Almtal tourism association, expects the number of guests to increase “by 25 to 30 percent” in the Capital of Culture year, ultimately an increase of one million visitors. The program sounds as diverse as it is promising. It is quite possible that the creators will succeed in a big success and that they will give the long-established tourism destination, which has gathered a bit of dust over the decades, an unexpected boost with the “new” salt.
Tips and information:
Getting there: By train from Munich to Attnang-Puchheim, then change to the regional train to Gmunden, Bad Ischl and Hallstatt. Anyone traveling in their own car should pay attention to the vignette requirement on motorways and expressways in Austria; in 2024, ten days will cost 11.50 euros, two months will cost 28.90 euros; One-day vignettes are now also available for 8.60 euros (asfinag.at/maut-vignette/vignette).
Cultural tips: The website provides a good overview of the projects planned for the Capital of Culture year, which are divided into four program lines salzkammergut-2024.at/projekte/. With the Culture Card 2024, visitors receive discounts at museums, concerts and exhibitions in the region as well as on Capital of Culture programs all year round. The card costs 49 euros and is available from the tourist associations in the Salzkammergut and online.
Accommodation: Bad Ischl offers a range of accommodation, from four-star hotels to holiday apartments, 113 states the website badischl.salzkammergut.at/gastgeber/alle-gastgeber.html before. An overview of Hallstatt hosts can be found at hallstatt.net/unterkunftsverzeichnis/gasthoefe-und-hotels/.
Further information: Upper Austria: oberoesterreich.at; Salzkammergut: salzkammergut.at; Bad Ischl: badischl.salzkammergut.at; Capital of Culture 2024: salzkammergut-2024.at; Austria: austria.info.
Participation in the trip was supported by Upper Austria Tourism. Our standards of transparency and journalistic independence can be found at axelspringer.com/de/werte/downloads.
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In order to display embedded content, your revocable consent to the transmission and processing of personal data is necessary, as the providers of the embedded content require this consent as third party providers [In diesem Zusammenhang können auch Nutzungsprofile (u.a. auf Basis von Cookie-IDs) gebildet und angereichert werden, auch außerhalb des EWR]. By setting the switch to “on”, you agree to this (revocable at any time). This also includes your consent to the transfer of certain personal data to third countries, including the USA, in accordance with Art. 49 (1) (a) GDPR. You can find more information about this. You can revoke your consent at any time using the switch and privacy at the bottom of the page.
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