The pastel-colored houses reflected in the smooth, shimmering waters of the lake and surrounded by mountains dropping steeply away on all sides would be enough to guarantee the fame of this place. The salt in the mountains above the city made the city a center of salt production. The Hallstatt period (800 to 400 BC) refers to the early Iron Age in Europe, and was named after the village where the Celts who settled here mined the salt in those days.