Current Exhibits

The emerald source in the Habachtal valley, at Bramberg in Oberpinzgau, is the only significant occurrence of emeralds in Central Europe and has been known since 1669.

Duchess Anna Maria de Medici mentioned the emerald mine in a letter to her brother Gian Gastone, the last Grand Duke Medici of Tuscany, at the beginning of the 18th century, in reference to a report by the Danish priest and naturalist Niels Stensen.

Favourable geological conditions have allowed emeralds to form in the talcose mica schist over the millennia. The six-sided beryls, which, structurally, belong to the cyclosilicates group, were coloured green by chromium. The more chromium there is in the beryl, the more intensive the green.

Seven Habachtal emeralds were set into Abbot Albert Nagnzaun’s splendid pectoral cross in 1786. Nagnzaun, as Albert IV, was abbot of St. Peter’s Abbey from 1818 until his death in 1856. The pectoral cross is now kept in St. Peter’s.

Alois Steiner, a geologist from Bramberg, was able to make a significant discovery when he split open talcose schist rock to find a 40 cm mineral layer with 24 nearly pure, deep green emeralds. It was in the shape of the Madonna and is known as the Emerald Madonna (TXTL1) today. This layer of emeralds can be admired in the Museum Bramberg in the national park exhibition Emeralds and Crystals.

At 2200 m above sea level, a total of four tunnels were made in the mountain over the course of its colourful mining history, of which only one is still used for maintenance work. The entire site belongs to a lawyer family from Munich; entering the tunnels is prohibited without exception because of the risk of falling rocks

Over the millennia, the emeralds have become scattered in the slip rock due to erosion. With a certain level of patience they can be found next to or above the Alpenrose inn in the Habachtal valley with relatively little danger involved.

The so-called hand stones represent the pinnacle of Baroque and Late Baroque mountain art. Hand stones are particularly beautiful pieces of crystallised mineral or ore with subjects added from miners’ everyday life, resting on costly bases. There are hardly more than a dozen of these rare examples of mountain art left in the world.

The cabinet of mountain curiosities at the Leogang Mining and Gothic Museum has two hand stones with added pannier carriers on display, created by Simon Troger in his Tyrolean workshop in the 18th century.

First there is a large figure with a hat, its face made from ivory or bone, walking on a hill made of minerals and stone. You can recognise smoky quartz, mica schist and actinolite (from the Greek for ‘shining stone’) but also a small piece of amethyst, polished carnelian and fossilised snails and corals. The hand stone and figure rests on a wooden, contoured base.

The second hand stone from the workshop of the Tyrolean master craftsman is similar: a mineral and stone hill on a semi-circular carved gilt base. Here too can be found smoky quartz, pieces of marble, a typically tapered actinolite, polished carnelian and fossilised coral and mussels. On the top is a large figure with a tall hat, its face and hands made of ivory or bone.

Both hand stones are on loan from the Spängler bank in Salzburg.

The exact origins of Lichtenberg Castle near Saalfelden are obscure. It was first mentioned in a document in 1281. The castle stands imposingly on a rock promontory above the Steinernes Meer (‘rocky sea’), 60 m above Saalfelden, and served from the end of the 13th century as the seat of the archbishop’s official who, from here, managed the Saalfelden-Lichtenberg administrative courts.

In 1526 the castle was destroyed during the Salzburg peasants’ revolt and rebuilt in subsequent decades by the Saalfelden municipality. In the course of rebuilding, the castle acquired its mighty round tower to the southwest.

After the archiepiscopal officials moved their seat of power to the valley in the early 18th century, the castle served only as the home of a senior forestry official. It fell noticeably into disrepair and was auctioned and sold for 8,340 guilders (just over 50,000 euros) to Adolf Ritter Weiß von Teßbach in 1870. Lichtenberg Castle owes its current appearance to the noble Weiß von Teßbach family; it is still in their possession today.

Behind Lichtenberg Castle, Michael Hofer’s painting shows the Leogang Valley and towering Leogang Mountains to the west and Zeller Basin to the south, with the Hohe Tauern beyond. The view to the east of the Urslautal and pilgrimage site of Maria Alm completes this tremendous panorama. Above the castle, at the foot of a high limestone cliff, we find the hermitage of St. George am Palfen which is still inhabited today.

Michael Hofer, who proves his masterful handling of colour, light, shadow and perspective here too, again with oil on cardboard, signed the picture ‘M. Hofer’ on the bottom right. The painting is on loan from a private collection in Salzburg.