Bad Ischl and the salt

The history of Bad Ischl is closely linked to salt and its mining. On this page you can find out more about Bad Ischl and salt.

Salt is culture

Bad Ischl's fortunes have always been guided by white gold. "In sale et in sole omnia consistunt" ("Everything is based on salt and the sun") can be read as an inscription on the Ischl drinking hall. No wonder, as the history of salt goes back a long way: due to its proximity to Hallstatt, the oldest salt mine in the world, trade in the white gold flourished early on.

The town on the River Traun soon acquired the reputation of a "salt town". In July 1563, the foundation stone for salt mining in Ischl was laid with the opening of a tunnel in Perneck. The mining tradition is still very much alive in Ischl, even though the brine is no longer extracted from the mountain, but from a probe field above ground. Since 1960, a piece of Ischl can be found in almost every local kitchen in the form of Austria's best-known table salt, "Bad Ischler".

It was also the salt that provided the "bath" in Bad Ischl. In 1822, the first guests cured their ailments with brine baths. The resounding success quickly spread to the imperial court. Artists such as Franz Lehár and Johann Nestroy also succumbed to the charm of Ischl, which became a symbol of summer laissez-faire.

Thanks to the former "Salt Prince", Emperor Franz Joseph I, Ischl even achieved world-historical significance in 1914. When he authorised the war from here, he signed his name to the Habsburg Monarchy's party card, which fell at the end of the First World War.

The world order has changed since then, but the former "imperial residence" still casts a spell over its visitors. It was and still is a good place to live: Art, culture, the unique landscape and culinary delights are still the recipe for success today. With a pinch of salt, of course!

Important dates

ca. 3000 B.C. - prehistoric salt mining, salt core mining and above-ground settlement
1563 - Start of salt mining in Ischl
1567 - first brine extraction through drainage into the lower horizon (tunnel)
1571 - Construction of the first brewhouse in Ischl
1595 - 1604 - Construction of the Hallstatt - Ischl - Ebensee brine pipeline, the oldest industrial pipeline in the world still in operation
1656 - First mention of the name "Salzkammergut" for the area around Ischl
1826 to 1835 - Construction of the Kolowrat brewhouse at Auböckplatz 6 (decommissioned in 1965)

Ischl and the salt

The entire Salzkammergut was blessed with the coveted mineral resource of salt. Hence the name, which is made up of the words Kammergut and salt. A Kammergut is a region that is directly owned by the sovereign, in this case the Archdukes of the House of Habsburg.
In contrast to Hallstatt and Bad Aussee, the salt deposits in Bad Ischl were developed relatively late. Of course, the area around Ischl had long been recognised as being rich in salt, but there was a special economic need to develop the mining.

The foundation stone for the start of salt mining in Ischl was laid in July 1563, when the first tunnel was opened in the village of Perneck. The more favourable location for transport as well as the untouched forest deposits and the probable inability of the Hallstatt salt mountain forced the Ischl salt mountain out of its baptism. 8 years later, in 1571, the first brewhouse for salt processing was founded in Bad Ischl. Salt thus became the most important economic basis for generations of Ischl residents. In addition to the previous transport, it was now also produced directly in the Perneck salt mine. In 1595, the then Emperor Rudolf II commissioned the construction of a brine pipeline from Hallstatt via Goisern to Bad Ischl. Forty kilometres long and perfectly adapted to the terrain, this was the first pipeline in the world.
The 17th and 18th centuries saw a crisis in the salt trade in the Salzkammergut.

At the beginning of the 19th century, salt also began to be used for health purposes.
Alongside sulphur from a spring in the Salzberg and mud, Ischl salt was used as the most important remedy.
One method used to heal the respiratory tract, for example, was salt inhalation. For this purpose, galleries were built over steaming salt pans for spa guests.

Bad Ischl Salt Mine

The salt mine was already frequently visited by spa guests from the middle of the 19th century. At that time, visits by foreigners were free of charge, as itwould have been "neither proper nor compatible with the dignity of the state administration to charge certain taxes for the visit".

Tourist use of the mine was discontinued at the end of 2000.

The Kolowrat brewhouse

The brewhouse in Ischl, built in 1571, was able to process the brine extracted from the Ischler Salzberg until the beginning of the 19th century. This was due to the fact that the brine yield fell far short of expectations and the limited amount of wood available from the surrounding forests meant that a second pan could not be operated. It was only when the lower horizons of the Perneck salt mine were opened up and the significantly higher efficiency of the tried and tested Tyrolean double pan prompted the court chamber to build a duwerk in Ischl similar in function to the Ebensee pan house.
After acquiring the land in 1826, construction work progressed slowly and the shell of the building was not completed until 1829. In 1831, technical improvements to the brewing plant led to a modification of the original building project. Finally, the new brewhouse, the so-called Tiroler Werk, was put into operation in 1833. It was now possible to cool and remove the old kettle.
Under the management of the Ischl administrator Karl von Plentzner, the construction of a second brewhouse, a drying house and a salt store began in the same year. This created a favourable overall layout for the future operation of the plant. A trial brew carried out in June 1835 after completion of the second kettle, the Kolowrat plant, met the high expectations. In line with technical developments, the new production facility was continuously modernised. In 1845, a new ladle furnace was installed and in 1847, the Viennese mechanic Fletscher supplied a brine pump, a lift systemand a suspended and a horizontal iron railway to transport the Füderl to the warehouse and from there onwards to the Ausländeplatz on the Traun. In 1877, the Franz Karl-Sudhaus was built on the site of the Tiroler-Werke, whose pan was fuelled with brown coal gas. In the course of the main levelling works in 1912, both pans were demolished and renewed.
Finally, between 1951 and 1953, the ladle wing was completely rebuilt, with the original northern façade being retained. In 1954, production was resumed on two ladles, but these were finally shut down in 1965. This was followed by the dismantling of the brewhouse facilities, which now serve as a commercial centre.

Since the demolition of the Metternich-Lobkowitz plant in Ebensee and the brewhouse in Hallstatt, the Kolowrat brewhouse in Bad Ischl is the last remaining brewhouse in the Upper Austrian Salzkammergut.

Text provided with the kind permission of Salinen Austria

Abbildung Sudhütten Arbeiter in Bad Ischl

Arbeiter an der Drehbohrmaschine Bad Ischl

The salt works archive

The saltworks archive is located in the Lehárstöckl on Franz-Lehár-Kai in Bad Ischl.
It includes manuscripts, manuscripts and printed works from the 16th century to the present day in around 5,000 volumes.

learn more

Salzausziehen Saline Ischl 1930 Archiv Salinen Austria

VIA SALIS - Paths of salt

A journey through time in the footsteps of the miners
Over 450 years ago, miners dug deep tunnels into the mountains in Bad Ischl.
Today, an adventurous journey for the whole family, school classes and any other type of group excursion takes you to where the men once extracted the salt from the mountain.

Come with us on a journey into the past!

Along the themed trail, you will visit historical sites that were once of great importance to the Salzkammergut.

www.viasalis.at

Important dates on the origin/development of salt production in the Salzkammergut

250 million years ago - formation of salt pans - barren theory
approx. 3000 BC - prehistoric salt mining
1344-3 BC - wooden staircase found in the prehistoric salt mine in Hallstatt (2003)
1147 - SBB Altaussee first mentioned; Margrave Ottokar II von Bähmen donated two salt pans on the Ahornberg to Rein Abbey near Graz. "duas salis patellas in Enstal ap mahorn" two salt pans (salt pans with the capacity for 2 brewing pans) in the Ennstal near Mahorn (correct: Ahorn)
1311 - Under Queen Elisabeth (wife of King Albrecht I) first economic salt production in the SKG, SBB Hallstatt
1449 - Beginning of the salt monopoly in Austria under Emperor Frederick III
1493 - Under Emperor Maximilian I (son of Emperor Frederick III) in Hall i. Tyrol, the third chamber salt works is incorporated into the rest of the Austrian hereditary land in the Habsburg Empire
Around 1500 - Start of the reform of the administration of salt production (Hallamtsordnungen in Aussee, preparation of the Reformation Libelle in the SKG)
1524, 1563, 1656 - three salt regulations, commonly known asthe "Reformation Dragonfly", valid until 1791 (not to be confused with Martin Luther's religious reformation of 1517)
1563 - Start of salt mining in Ischl
1567 - Salt mining in Ischl, first brine extraction through drainage into the lower horizon (tunnel)
1595-1604 - Brine pipeline Hallstatt - Ischl - Ebensee; oldest industrial pipeline in the world still in operation
8.2. 1607 - first salt from the Ebensee salt works, the most modern salt works in the Habsburg Empire (technique of returning the mother liquor to the brewing pan by means of a scoop wheel)
1757 - Gosauzwang (bridge 30 metres long, 37 metres high), technical masterpiece
1848 - Beginning of the abolition of the Gmunden Salt Office, completed in 1868
1979 - Construction of Europe's most modern salt works in Ebensee/Steinkogel, salt production of 400,000 tonnes p.a. possible and first privatisation of the Austrian salt works into a public limited company (100 percent owned by the Austrian state)
1997 - Sale/transfer of Österr. Salinen AG to the buyers and main owners RLB OÖ Dr Scharringer, AIC-Dr Hannes Androsch
2022 - salt production in the Ebensee/Steinkogel salt works after approx. 43 years from 400,000 tonnes p.a. to approx. 1.2 million tonnes p.a.; from Aussee, Hallstatt and Bad Ischl mines / probe field.