Traun

The Traun is a river in Upper Austria. It rises in the Totes Gebirge range in Styria and flows past Bad Aussee, Bad Ischl and Gmunden before joining the Danube near Linz. Along its course it passes Hallstätter See and Traunsee, two of the Salzkammergut lakes. The river is 156 kilometres long and drains a basin of 4,257 square kilometres. Its average flow at the mouth is 150 cubic metres per second. The Traun valley has long been shaped by salt mining. Hallstatt, on the shores of Hallstätter See, was one of Europe’s earliest settled places because of its salt deposits. Archaeologists have found 7,000-year-old tools such as a shoe-last celt used for felling trees. Excavations also uncovered one of the first blacksmiths’ sites. The wealth from salt trade supported a sophisticated society now called the Hallstatt culture. Visitors to Hallstatt see the prehistoric cemetery discovered in 1846. Because space was limited, bones were removed every ten years to an ossuary. The chapel there displays decorated skulls with owners’ names, professions and dates of death inscribed on them. The lakes and surrounding mountains offer quiet walks beside water that has carried boats and salt for millennia.