Current Exhibits

Georgius Agricola (Latin for ‘Georg Bauer’) was a German doctor, pharmacist and scientist who is regarded as the ‘father of minerology’ and founder of modern geology and mining engineering. His main work De re metallica libri XII, ‘12 books on mining’, appeared for the first time in Latin in 1556, a year after his death, in Basel.

Agricola’s work is the result of his travels through the mining regions of the Saxon and Bohemian Ore Mountains and demonstrates a systematic, technological investigation of mining and trade associations. Decorated with woodcuts, the entire mining knowledge of the day was compiled by the author, who in doing so became the founder of mountain scholarship. For two hundred years, Agricola’s books remained the decisive work on the subject.

Later, the famous mining book was translated into many different languages. Philippus Bechius (1521-1560), a friend of Agricola and a professor at the University of Basel, translated the manuscript into German and published it in 1557 under the title Vom Bergkwerck XII Bücher.

The cabinet of mountain curiosities at the Leogang Mining and Gothic Museum has three different editions of the famous work on display: the second Latin edition from 1561, the second German edition from 1580 and the first English edition from 1912, also called De re metallica.

The first English translation was published by Herbert Clark and Lou Henry Hoover, a married couple, who added commentary and footnotes. Herbert Clark Hoover was not only a trained mining engineer and successful entrepreneur, but the 31st president of the United States of America from 1929 to 1933.

The three editions of Georgius Agricola’s work on show at the Mining and Gothic Museum come from Achim and Beate Middelschulte’s famous private collection of mountain art in Essen.

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.

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.