Innviertel Folklose House

Ried im Innkreis in Upper Austria, the village of the Schwanthaler family of sculptors, has a friendly little folklore museum. The Schwanthalers worked for 200 years from 1632 to 1838 and count 21 sculptors. It was the Baroque period in a region that was relatively prosperous. The museum was founded at the beginning of the 20th century when some committed citizens of Ried founded the museum association to prevent an important Schwanthaler work from being sold abroad. It was about the so-called “Kögl-crib”, a bourgeois house crib from 1792 by Johann Peter the Elder Schwanthaler. A Schwanthaler museum was to be created to protect their work. The interest in collecting was extended to objects of peasant and bourgeois origin. With the acquisition of the extensive folklore collection of a local priest, the foundation stone was laid for a museum with its own building, which was open to the public.

In addition to the Schwanthaler works, sculptures by the Zürn family of sculptors, a crucifix by Meinrad Guggenbichler and Gothic sculptures are on display in the Figurensaal. The folklore collection includes exhibits from the guild system, the Rieder playing card painters, quill embroidery, Viechtau wooden objects, ceramic and glass vessels and much more. In the “Religious Folk Art” section, you can see reverse glass paintings, pilgrimage souvenirs, votive offerings, protective signs, amulets, monastery work and marksmen’s targets, to name just a few categories. Then there is the Max-Kislinger-Stube. This room is furnished with Kislinger’s estate. The Linz native recorded Upper Austrian buildings and their inventory using photographs, sketches and watercolors. His books are standard works – I work with his books again and again.