INNSBRUCK - Austria (Wed 15 July)

We went into Innsbruck today by bus, but first we went for a browse around Rum. Our first point of reference was the church that we had heard tolling it’s bells since we got there. From the outside it was a very simple looking church with white walls and an extremely high and steeple, that seems to be the accepted rule. Perhaps that’s so the snow doesn’t stick. Inside the church there was a brief history, and from what we could make out from the German inscriptions, a church was first built there in 1250, it was consecrated in 1452, and restored in 1966. Quite impressive, but what impressed us most was the hymn books that were left in all the pews. They were very new age with hymns like Bob Dylan’s ‘Blowing in the wind’ … with slight changes to the lyrics. Quite different to what we have been seeing recently. It seems like a very cool local family church.

By the time we had got in to Innsbruck it was raining and looked like it might be for a while, so we did the logical thing and headed for the Museum. On the way there we saw the funniest thing. Whilst waiting to cross the road, we saw a nun stride out of the bank with a big bag (memories of ‘Blues Brothers’ here), and she proceeded to march straight across the road directly across the path of a tram (and those things aren’t slow). The tram ground to a halt stopping just a few meters from her, She carried on looking neither left nor right, leaving the tram driver leaning out the window yelling abuse to her disappearing back. It made you think “Man … nun’s can do anything, they’ve got God on their side. They can stop traffic.”

After having a good giggle, we proceeded on to the Museum of Tyrolean Folk Art. The first part of the museum takes you through a section that is dedicated to nativity scenes. You may well laugh, but these things are serious. Large complex arrangements with mountains, hills, little figures, animals and implements of every description included. Some of them date back to the 18th Century. I guess they are a snapshot of what life was like when they were constructed. They had things like people milking goats, people sitting around drinking up large, shepherds in the hills, shoeing a horse, poachers and in the middle would be the ‘little Jesus’. One very memorable one had the ‘little Jesus’ about to be circumcised by the high priest! Well we hadn’t expected that.

The rest of the museum had everything from old Austrian times including musical instruments (the Hurdy-Gurdy), celebrations (dressage for cows, and fritter-snappers), furniture, whole rooms from old Chalets, etc. What I will remember from this is that when you have a culture of people who spend a large portion of their lives snowbound in their houses, with no electricity (no lights), and no TV or Radio, they will find things to do with their hands. And in this particular case, they whittled. Almost everything they had or possessed seemed to be made of wood. And every one of those items large or small, had every single surface and edge, cut, notched, shaped, molded, carved or whittled into a decorative pattern. I am sure that if they had pins, they would have been made of wood and then decorated in some way. But you can see that these guys were craftsmen, and extremely clever. I guess boredom can be a wonderful thing, and if this preserved their sanity, well good on them.

Another aspect of this museum was the whole question of mortality, in fact there was a section devoted to it. There was quote from 1610 that said that of 100 babies born at that time only 10 survived to grow up, and as recent as 1811, every fourth death in Tyrol involved a child. Pretty serious stats, which may explain some of the ornaments. There was some little carved ornaments that were like little coffins (about 75mm long) that had bodies inside them, decorated with worms and rats, etc. It makes you wonder who created them? Who owned them? Where they were kept? Did they show them to their kids to scare them into eating their vegetables? Very bizarre.

Of the complete rooms they had, each of them had a huge stone, or plaster like oven/heater type arrangement (and yes they were decorated) that sat in the corner. Most of them were about 2500mm long, 1500mm wide, 1500mm high. In some cases they took up most of the room. There was a firebox underneath and it looked like they heated up the stone and this radiated the heat around the house. They obviously put a high priority on heating, which indicates just how cold it gets here. Oh … and the doorways to these rooms are so low even Justine had to duck!

From here we went to the church next door. This was a creation by Maximilian I, emperor of Austria. In the centre of the church is a huge sarcophagus surrounded by a very ornate metal grill. Down each side of this (running along the length of the church) are large bronze figures (28 of them). Maximilian designed this for himself long before he died and anticipated this and the church to take 100 years to complete. His idea was that once he died he would have a bronze guard of honor of his friends. Each one of the figures is a likeness of one of his friends or relatives, including King Arthur of the roundtable fame (yes a fictional character).

As well as this Maximilian wanted not only an arch with motives of his exploits decorating its surface, he wanted one of these arches in every county. How’s that for an ego. Unfortunately he died while traveling between counties, from what is believed to be intestinal cancer. And according to his wishes, before he died he had his head shaved, his teeth pulled, and his body coved in lime once he had died. A bit late to be humble then I think. So consequently, the sarcophagus lies empty, with his guard of honor still waiting for their honoured guest. What is it that makes the royal families of all nations so … eccentric.