Bad Reichenhall

Salt springs here have been exploited since at least the Iron Age, and the town's wealth and its many fires both came from the industry. After a fire in 1834 Ludwig I had the Alte Saline rebuilt in a monumental Romanesque revival style, with vaulted marble halls underground housing the brine wheels and pumps, decorated as though they were rooms of state; the machinery is preserved and shown on tours through the tunnels. Brine is still processed in the town. A graduation tower, a wall of blackthorn brush over which brine trickles to concentrate and release salt into the air, stands in the spa gardens for open-air inhalation.

What you actually see

• The Alte Saline - vaulted underground halls with preserved brine machinery.
• The 1834 rebuild - industrial works dressed as monumental architecture.
• The graduation tower - brine trickling over brushwood in the spa gardens.
• The brine tunnels - passages cut to carry water through the rock.

When to go

April to October; the saltworks tours run year-round with reduced winter hours. The spa gardens are open all year. The town is a base for the Berchtesgaden area.

Honest expectations

The saltworks is seen only on a guided tour and it is cool underground. The modern spa town is otherwise ordinary. Tours can book out in summer.

Nearby

Berchtesgaden lies south; Salzburg is northeast across the border.