Dorfmuseum Mönchhof

Welcome to the "Village Museum"

Mönchhof is situated in the so-called "Seewinkel," part of a great plain stretching from the most eastern part of Austria into Hungary. In former times the area around the village Mönchhof was called "Heideboden", meaning a kind of heath land, a rather dry and poor place to make a living upon. However, the many farmers, craftsmen and peasants still tried. This heath land was much more a strict father than a "mother earth," feeding its people or starving them, ruling over them, ordering them to work or to rest. These conditions changed greatly during the second half of the 20th century. Modernization took over the country and, with it, over the "Heideboden" as well. Where dust had been, concrete and asphalt now lay. With this the old agricultural world changed also, growing more independent from the soil in some places, vanishing altogether in others. "A thing that could not be stopped," as people said.

Here, in the village museum in Mönchhof, the past times can still be sensed. They are perceptible in the old houses, with their furniture and items of daily use, as much as in the craftsmen's shops, with their tools and products. The village museum transmits the spirit of the people that lived in the "Heideboden," and it tells us about their joys and griefs, their comfort and security as well as about the restrictions and forces within the village society.

The open-air-museum (having emerged from a private collection to its actual size within the last 10 years) is divided into three parts: The first part deals with the sources of existence, meaning the people's provisions for food. What did they plant? How did they plant and harvest? What did they keep for themselves? What were their essentials for surviving? According to this, the second part of the museum is dedicated to the preservation of food for personal need and use, drying, home-curing, smoking or stewing, being the guarantee for surviving rough times also.

Hidden behind a small pond, there is the largest and maybe most fascinating part of the museum. There we find a real (or rather a model, yet typical) village in the former vineyard of the museum's builders and owners, the family Christine and Josef Haubenwallner. A school, the local inn and grocery, the cinema, the municipal and postal office, the house of the fire brigade and the workshops of the local craftsmen as well as the humble home of the shepherd surround the village green. Contrasting with the latter is a huge farm building, complete with stables, wine cellar, coach house and workrooms, located at the far end of the yard. Opposite these buildings we can see the baker's living rooms and bakery as well as the small shop where his wife sold the newly-made goods. These two building units—the farmer's and the baker's house—are connected with each other through a huge gate at the one end and a barn at the other. Together they also share the yard between the long-stretched houses, making them a so-called "Halbwirtschaft," a most typical way of living and working in the "Heideboden." Farther still, at the very end of the village museum, we can see the latest and most valuable attraction: the church, placed on a small hill and overlooking the whole little village.

Apart from wandering about all these buildings, the visitor can enter every single one, houses, workshops and stables. He can stay there, taking in everything and losing himself in gazing at details, strolling about for hours in this slow and friendly museum. Most friendly and cozy, of course, is the local inn. Like most of the other buildings, it was once situated in Mönchhof, then taken down and re-erected in the museum with all its furniture and decoration. Here, the visitor can take a rest, think, ask for further details—or simply enjoy a nice glass of wine originating from the cellar of Andreas Weiss, the Haubenwallner's son-in-law. The local  bakery specials—like "Grammelpogatschen" or "Wasserkipferl"—now created by the neighbors, go nicely with the drink. Sometimes the little inn is almost bursting with visitors, at other times it is all empty and silent. Too silent for the guest's taste? Then switch on the old music-box and listen to the great German hits of the 1950's. Or come and visit the museum when there is a real band playing folk music, when the craftsmen show their skills in the old workshop or when an exhibition in the newly-built hall is ceremoniously opened.

Leaving the "Dorfmuseum Mönchhof"—passing the pond and the "Sammlung" (collection), the former heart of it all—the last highlight should not be missed. At the exit the visitor finds the museum’s shop, where little gifts can be purchased. Wine and spirits, jams and juices, all different sorts of cookies and handmade bags and tablecloths. There also is available the museum's catalogue showing both beautiful pictures and interesting details about the region and the museum.

In 2000, the Austrian Ministry of Education, Science and Culture awarded the "Volkskulturpreis," for achievements in the preservation of original Austrian culture, to the "Dorfmuseum Mönchhof." The "Tourism Award" followed two years later. Furthermore, since 1994, the museum works in cooperation with the Viennese University Institute of European Ethnology.


Open April 1 to October 31
Tuesday - Sunday and Holidays, 10:00 - 18:30 h
Open everyday in June, July and August

 

by Johannes Graf and Village Museum Mönchhof

2010.09.03