Mühlviertel Castle Museum

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Keep and south wing of the castle

The Mühlviertel Castle Museum was founded in 1926 and is the only museum in the city of Freistadt . It houses around 21,000 objects from eight centuries and is housed in the south wing of Freistadt Castle.

history

The Mühlviertler Schlossmuseum was founded in 1926 by the Heimatbund Alt-Freystadt association as the Mühlviertler Heimathaus , later renamed the Mühlviertler Schlossmuseum . The association was founded in 1921 and began collecting exhibits that were later brought into the new museum. The museum's first exhibition room was the former palace chapel, which previously served as a warehouse for the land surveying office. In 1932, the ground-level columned hall, a former horse stable from 1588, was added. In 1942 this club museum was taken over by the Freistadt district . In 1948 the castle's keep was converted for museum purposes, creating nine additional rooms. In 1952, the state of Upper Austria took over the Heimathaus and ran it until 2000. The Mühlviertler Schlossmuseum Freistadt association has been running the museum since April 1, 2000 ; the technical support remains with the scientific staff of the Upper Austrian State Museum in Linz .

The following personalities have contributed significantly to the expansion of the museum's holdings in the course of history:

  • Gustav Brachmann,
  • Franz Dichtl and
  • Adolf Bodingbauer.

Over time, after various apartments became vacant, it was constantly expanded and now has 21 showrooms. The castle museum shows around 21,000 mainly folkloric exhibits and objects from eight centuries of city history. The museum consists of four main groups:

  • Folklore of the Mühlviertel
  • Craft and trade
  • City history, everyday history
  • Reverse glass painting and ceramics
  • Customs and Financial History

Sights in the castle museum

On the second floor of the south wing there are old views of the city and contemporary witnesses from its past. On the floor above is the so-called Hirschbacher room with its brightly painted rustic furniture from the early 19th century. The renovated furnishings shown here, such as chest, chest, bed, cradle, table and armchair, sideboard, bowl basket and spinning wheel come from Hirschbach (8 kilometers southwest of Freistadt). The heyday of this furniture painting was around 1800, but only lasted 60 years.

From the south wing leads to the castle tower ( keep ). Here you can see the exhibitions on folklore topics such as faith and superstition, scales and measurements, custom and popular piety. Right at the top of the castle tower (9th floor) is the tower parlor, which has been preserved in almost its original state. The watchman on the keep, which the rule of Freistadt had to provide, kept watch there by day, while the watchman on the church tower, for which the town was responsible, was on duty during the night. The tower parlor leads to a corridor at a height of 40 meters, which used to serve as a lookout point for the watchman and which today provides an overview of the entire city and its hilly surroundings.

A unique collection of 531 reverse  glass pictures (the largest in Austria) from the period 1770 to 1930 is housed in the Gothic castle chapel. The castle chapel from the 15th century can be reached from the inner courtyard via a staircase. Most of the pictures come from Sandl (14 kilometers north of Freistadt) and the then still German South Bohemia (e.g. Buchers ). They are pious devotional images with a very simple representation of images of grace from well-known places of pilgrimage and of saints who were particularly venerated by the rural population. Such images were once widespread in the Mühlviertel, especially in the farmhouses.

Special exhibitions are shown in the columned hall and in the servants' house (entrance at ground level from the inner courtyard). The columned hall was originally the horse stable of the Freistadt rule and was built in 1588. Before changing special exhibitions were shown, folklore tools and devices were permanently on display.

  • Hirschbacher farmhouse furniture

  • Behind glass pictures in the castle chapel

  • Guild chests and trade marks

  • Türmerstube

literature

  • Institut für Landeskunde: Heimathaus Freistadt for 25 years. In: Upper Austrian homeland sheets. Vol. 5, No. 1, pages 69–72, 1951, online (PDF) in the forum OoeGeschichte.at
  • Adolf Bodingbauer: The Mühlviertel home in Freistadt. In: Upper Austrian culture report. Vol. 27, 1973.
  • Adolf Bodingbauer: The Mühlviertel home town of Freistadt. Upper Austria, fast. Art Guide 1576, Munich & Zurich 1986.

Web links

Commons : Schlossmuseum Freistadt  - Collection of pictures, videos and audio files

Coordinates: 48 ° 30 ′ 45 "  N , 14 ° 30 ′ 23"  E