Harter Blacksmiths
When sparks fly, then the iron is hot enough to work with. Stirring the fire and working the iron is what Karl Harter and his son do every day at the Harter Blacksmith Workshop in Hallein, family-owned for many generations.
The sound of the anvil reverberates dully through the shop, the fire blazes away brightly. Iron and fire, these are the most important elements of the Harters’ craft. Since the end of the 19th century the blacksmith workshop has been run by the family, their blacksmithing tradition however goes back even further than that – to the year 1770. In these early days, the Harter Blacksmith Workshop did not work with wrought iron and artistic forging but was a typical blacksmith workshop dealing mainly with products for workhorses and wagons. The rise of the automobile and new techniques with new consumer demands changed the product line of the blacksmith workshop to what it is today.
