Hall in Tirol

Hall lived on salt: brine was piped down from the Halltal from the thirteenth century and boiled here, and the wealth built a town whose old centre is the largest medieval one in western Austria, a steep tangle of lanes and squares above the Inn with the Oberer Stadtplatz at the top. That wealth also paid for a mint, and Hall's importance in monetary history is specific: in 1486 Archduke Sigismund had a large silver coin struck here, the Guldiner, the first of the big silver pieces that became the thaler - and, through Bohemian Joachimsthal and Spanish America, the dollar. The Burg Hasegg mint has a reconstructed roller press and lets visitors strike a coin. The Münzerturm is climbable and the Damenstift and parish church are in the centre.

History

Hall is first named as a saltern near Thaur castle in a deed of 1232, and its present name, from the Celtic word for salt, dates from 1256; in 1272 Count Meinhard II of Tyrol had the first adit of the salt mine in the Halltal driven, with the brine piped 10 kilometres to the boiling house at Hall, and salt was sold as far as Switzerland, the Black Forest and the Rhine. Hall became a town in 1303 and the leading market of northern Tyrol on the Inn and Danube trade, a fire razed much of the upper town in 1447, and in 1477 the Tyrolean mint moved here from Meran, striking the Guldengroschen, Europe's first large silver coin, in 1486 and later introducing the world's first automated coining machine (Wikipedia, Hall in Tirol).

What's there

• The mint at Burg Hasegg - where the first thaler-sized silver coins were struck in 1486.
• The largest medieval old town in western Austria - steep lanes above the Inn.
• A working coin press - the reconstructed roller press, with visitor striking.
• The Münzerturm - the mint tower, climbable for the valley view.

When to go

April to October; museum hours are seasonal. A day.

Practical notes

The mint museum keeps seasonal hours and closes Mondays. The old town is steep with cobbles. Innsbruck's proximity means many visitors come only for an afternoon.

Nearby

Innsbruck is ten minutes by tram; the Karwendel and the Halltal are north.

Key facts