Current Exhibits

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 cross shown here is silver with hallmarks from 1805 or 1809. Stamp marks on metalwork objects usually certified their precious metal content. Further stamps had to do with legal stipulations.

The cross has an eight-piece foot with a double hallmark in the rhombus containing a large ‘C’s and another with an ‘8’, denoting 8-Lot silver. In addition, there is a stamp with crossed keys. At the foot of the cross is an inscription: ‘1470’ in Gothic numerals.

On the front of the cross, the ends of the top half branch out into trefoils. Trefoils are a common element of the late Romanesque and Gothic style and consist of three, outward-pointing circular arcs with the same radii as inscribed in a circle.

Left and right can be found the single letters ‘F’ and ‘H’ (probably the owner’s initials). At the top is the inscription ‘IH. CROS’, the abbreviation for ‘Jesus Christ’. The inscription ‘INRI’ (‘Jesus of Nazareth, King of the Jews’) can be found above a relic window in the shape of a Teutonic Order cross. The trefoil on the lower end is decorated with a black, wolf-like animal in a blazon. The ring at the top end once served to attach a securing tape to ensure the cross did not fall during prayer processions.

The reverse shows an engraving of St. Christopher with the Infant Jesus and has a removable piece of the True Cross under clear quartz along with the coat of arms of an unknown bishop.

The inscription ‘receptacle containing the confirmation from Rome of the authenticity of this piece of the True Cross’ can be found on the bottom plate. This was the certificate of authenticity of a relic issued by a bishop. The foot of the cross is hollow, presumably it once held the now-lost certificate. The processional cross comes from the Margarete Sperl collection. It was a gift from His Magnificence Günther Georg Bauer, privy councillor of Salzburg.

The oil painting Alt Leogang by Michael Hofer has special significance for the region, as images of the municipality of Leogang in the mid-19th century are extremely rare.

If you view the centre of Leogang from the south, hardly anything has changed since Michael Hofer’s day. As then, the parish church of St. Leonhard and the historic ‘Kirchenwirt’ with its listed stable and farm buildings characterise Leogang in all its picturesque uniqueness.

It is assumed that the current parish church is at least the fourth sacred building to stand on this spot. The original patron saint of the church was St. Giles, but since 1477 it appears to have been St. Leonard, the so-called ‘God of Bavarian’.

St. Leonhard’s Church is unique because of the mighty iron chain around it. This rare motif is only found in churches dedicated to St. Leonhard, the ‘chain saint’. The people say ‘Mit seiner großen Ketten tut Leanhascht Leut und Vieh erretten’. (‘Leonhard will save the people and livestock with his chains.’)

St. Leonhard is pictured with a chain, as he strives to liberate prisoners. Since the 11th century he has been regarded as the patron saint of livestock, particular of horses. Incidentally, St. Leonhard’s Church is the only one of its kind in the archdiocese of Salzburg.

Behind the buildings on Hofer’s oil-on-cardboard painting is the picturesque backdrop of the Leogang Mountains, or ‘Pinzgau Dolomites’. The painting belongs to the Leogang Mining and Gothic Museum and bears Hofer’s handwritten title with his birth and death dates.