Hallein

Hallein lies on the Salzach below the salt-bearing Dürrnberg. Salt was mined there in antiquity, and a salt pan at the medieval settlement was recorded in 1198. The town grew around its boiling houses, where brine from the mountain was turned into salt. By the sixteenth century Hallein had become a major producer, and trade along the Salzach brought the archbishops of Salzburg a large share of their revenues.

The wealth of the salt trade was not equally shared by its workers. Lost markets and competition with Bavaria brought hardship to miners and salt workers. In 1731–1732, during the expulsion of Protestants from Salzburg, 780 Dürrnberg miners and their families left the country. After the archbishopric lost its independence in the Napoleonic wars, Hallein passed to the Austrian Empire in 1816.