Salzburg Open Air Museum

The Salzburg Open-Air Museum is located in the federal state of Salzburg, approximately 15 kilometers south-west of the city of Salzburg in the municipality of Großgmain (region of Salzburg area), close to the German-Austrian border.The museum area is 50 acres in size and is located at the foot of the Untersberg in a nature and plant protection area.

The Salzburger Freilichtmuseum welcomes you with 100 authentic and original historical buildings that have been restored on the museum grounds and portray the stories of old farming, trades, rural crafts, and industry. Take some time to go on a stroll through history and delve deep into Salzburg’s rural history during the last six centuries.

Explore historic farmhouses, marvel at the simple, yet diverse existence of yesteryear, and relax in the museum’s pleasant bar. Take an exciting journey on the vintage steam engine heritage train across the 50-hectare museum grounds’ gorgeous natural scenery.

The Salzburg Open-Air Museum’s mission is to collect, recreate, and furnish genuine rural structures from the province of Salzburg, therefore chronicling rural construction, living, and working from the 15th to the 20th centuries.Which buildings are transferred to the open-air museum are determined by settlement geographical, domestic, socio-historical, and agricultural-historical factors in order to get a representative cross-section of all rural-peasant home types and social classes.

The museum’s design is inspired by the five Salzburg areas of Flachgau, Tennengau, Pongau, Pinzgau, and Lungau, where many types of farms have evolved through time.In 2013, the museum site had 109 structures from agriculture, crafts, trade, and industry, including whole farms, craftsmen’s cottages, inns, grocers, breweries, power plants, village schools, smithies, mills, sawmills, chapels, mountain lodges, and others.The oldest structure dated from 1442, while the oldest residential structure was constructed in 1482 in Ramingstein im Lungau.A variety of permanent exhibitions (e.g., interactive tractor show, brewery display, servants in the region of Salzburg) and temporary special exhibitions augment the vast range.The museum depot includes almost 60,000 inventory objects from rural material culture, ranging from trouser buttons to combine harvesters.The historical museum inn “Salettl” serves refreshments to visitors.

The Salzburg open-air museum is a state museum that is administered as a “company-like facility” by the Salzburg state government. Since 2017, Michael Weese has served as the museum’s director. The museum, which is open from the end of March until the beginning of November, receives over 100,000 visitors every season, making it Austria’s most visited open-air museum. The museum received 111,000 visitors during the 2018 season.