Current Exhibits

From the beginning of the 16th century until the end of the 18th century, Leogang was famous throughout Europe for its abundance of cobalt and nickel ores.

From the mid-16th century, cobalt ores were of particular importance. In blue colouring works’, safflorite was first produced by heating cobalt ore. This served as the raw material for the production of smalt, a powdery blue glass pigment. Since both safflorite and smalt are fireproof, they were used for colouring glass, porcelain, ceramics and oil paints.

Coloured Venetian glass was seen as a special luxury in the German-speaking countries of Europe from the mid-15th century. German merchants such as the Welser and Fugger families had already founded the Fondaco dei Tedeschi (‘the Germans’ warehouse’) in Venice in 1225. Situated on the Canale Grande right next to the famous Rialto Bridge, the building became the trading centre for luxury export goods from Venice to the German-speaking countries.

As the use of safflorite and smalt for colouring glass increased, cobalt from Salzburg became an indispensable raw material for the production of luxury Venetian glass from the mid-16th century.

Its extraction and use in glassware is mentioned in Georg Agricola’s De re metallica Libri XII from 1556, a masterpiece of mining literature which can also be admired at the Leogang Mining and Gothic Museum.

There was an unprecedented increase in the use of blue in painting too. From as early as the 12th century, what was at first a dark and lacklustre colour was redefined as the symbol of Heaven and the virginity of the Blessed Mother. Glassmakers and illuminators strove to reconcile this new kind of blue with church architects’ altered perception of light adopted from theologians. The radiance of cobalt blue oil paint opened up a completely new set of possibilities in the visual arts.

Today, smalt, or cobalt blue glass powder, is mostly used for restoring old masterpieces.

Very close to where mining administrator, tourism pioneer and painter Michael Hofer worked lies the Grundbach estate.

This oil-on-cardboard painting by Hofer shows a classic Pinzgau farm with a brickwork lower and timbered upper storey. The larch shingles used for roofing at that time are easy to make out, as are the stones placed on the finished roof to secure it.

Once again, Michael Hofer proves he has a good eye for the beauties of nature and developing architecture of the Pinzgau farms.

The picture is the property of the Leogang Mining and Gothic Museum and signed ‘M. Hofer’ on the bottom left.

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.