Hallstatt from Above

Dana captured this stunning view of the Protestant church and Hallstatt's Marktplatz on 28 June 2010 from the Catholic Church cemetery above the town. The tiny hamlet of Hallstatt (population about 900), located in Austria's Salzkammergut Lake District about four hours via train from Vienna, is a beautiful, slow, and blissfully quiet place. Upon arrival in Hallstatt, the train drops you off at a little station across the lake (built in a clearing in the woods at the foot of a mountain), and a boat called Stefanie carries you and your luggage across placid Lake Hallstatt to the town. For thousands of years people have mined salt from these mountains. Around 1600 B.C., a brine spring drew Bronze Age people to the area. The rock was about 70 percent salt, a substance that could preserve meat and help sustain life. In the region salt is referred to as White Gold because of the tremendous value it possessed. This gorgeous photograph reveals one of Dana's photographic trademarks: a subject framed partially by flora or fauna in the foregound.

Photo by Dana Angotti-Novick