Tyrolean Folk Art Museum — Attraction in Innsbruck

Eighty years after it was founded, the museum in Universitätsstrasse underwent substantial reconstruction in 2008/2009 and now has a new look. Lucifer is the ‘light-bearer’ who guides visitors through the ‘new’ Museum of Tyrolean Folk Art. He is the agent provocateur, the enfant terrible in our brave, seemingly well-ordered museum world. He asks questions, casts doubts, and undermines: what is art? What is craft? What is real? What only seems to be? Lucifer devotes himself to reality.

The varied exhibition areas include ‘Miniaturen des Evangeliums’ ‘Gospel Miniatures’, ‘Pralles Jahr’ ‘Year Full to Bursting’], ‘Prekäres Leben’ [‘Perilous Life’], ‘Schein und Sein’ [‘Illusion and Reality’, the Studiensammlung [collection of studies], and the Stuben [parlours]. Visitors are also ‘prepared’ for the Court Church by an impressive preview.

The Museum of Tyrolean Folk Art in Innsbruck is one of the most beautiful of its kind in Europe. In 1888, the Tyrolean trade association decided to build a ‘Tyrolean trade museum’ in Innsbruck. Initially, exemplary crafted contemporary products were collected. They were meant to give Tyrolean craftsmen new ideas.

Later, “Old Tyrolean arts and crafts as well as the products of domestic Tyrolean diligence” were also included in the collection. The collection of the ‘Tyrolean museum for folk art and trade’ (1903), which was then owned by the chamber of trade and commerce, was afterwards relocated to the former Franciscan monastery that still houses it today. In 1926, the Tyrolean chamber of trade and commerce handed the exhibits over to the County of Tyrol, obliging the county to “set them up in a publicly accessible museum”.

In 1929, the Museum of Tyrolean Folk Art—as it was henceforth called—was opened. Many of its objects had been purchased prior to World War I. They came from the old County of Tyrol, including the Province of Trento (southern part of the historic Trentino region), and the Ladin valleys around the Dolomites. The collection items belong to various social strata: the peasantry, the middle classes, and the nobility. The collection is centred on artisan craftwork, applied arts, domestic industry, popular piety, masks, and...

A lot of interesting things in this central museum, and being together with the church makes it even more worth the visit, as both are included in the €12 museum ticket bundle. There trade items were really cool, carpentry and workers tools, cooking moulds, pans etc, although no English language description. The reconstructed rooms were a bit confusing and a lot seemed the same as each other. One thing that stuck out was a really strong smell of mould or mildew, seemed to come from the top floor, with all the creepy life size dolls/dummys. In one particular spot the smell was so strong I was almost was sick. My partner joked that maybe one of the dolls was a real dead body, the room was so creepy and together with the smell I actually felt really scared and creeped out. I would say if you visit just don't go to the top floor! First...

This museum is a little gem. You can buy a ticket which will let you visit other museums plus the church. Do not skip the church because it's wonderful, the statutes are so intricately detailed it's a pleasure to look. When we went we also politely invited to see a video about the times of Maximilian I and I only went in because I had time, thinking it was a video showing on the screen but it's much more interesting than that! I won't spoil it but I so recommend it, I imagine it's particularly good for children. The museum itself is full of everyday object from olden times, a whole floor has rooms where people used to entertain, the atmosphere is really special. There's clothes, furniture and lots more, I really enjoyed it as it gives an insight into the lives of people...