Salt Mine Altaussee

From 1943, the Nazis hid European art treasures from the Allies in the tunnels of the Altaussee salt mine: Michelangelo's Madonna from the Church of Our Lady in Bruges, paintings by Rubens and Rembrandt, the Ghent Altarpiece by the Van Eyck brothers, works by Dürer and Vermeer – just to name a few. In the face of the defeat, the Nazis wanted to destroy all these treasures in 1945. Were it not for the courageous miners of Aussee saved the artifacts from destruction.