Kramsach Museum Cemetery: A Collection of Irreverent Alpine Grave Monuments

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Nobody is buried in the museum cemetery. There is an extraordinary collection of authentic old grave monuments, which originally adorned graves, mainly in the German-speaking Alpine region. The incredibly irreverent sayings, mostly in rhyme, about life, death or long-kept family secrets of the deceased, are striking. Such grave inscriptions were not only used in Tyrol, but can be found in many places in Europe, America and Australia. This custom came to mainland Europe from England around the 17th century. Such irreverent inscriptions on grave monuments were common in the German-speaking Alpine region for a very long time and are sometimes still used today.

In 1965, the stonemason and blacksmith Hans Guggenberger founded this open-air museum. He was not the first in the family to collect such extraordinary grave monuments. His father, who was also a blacksmith, bought grave monuments as examples of the art of blacksmithing. The collection includes more than 700 grave monuments from 5 decades, and the most beautiful and funniest, around 60 pieces, are on display in the museum cemetery. The exhibits not only make you laugh, but also give an insight into the completely different attitude of people in previous generations towards life and death.

The exhibits include the following sayings: “Here lies my wife, thank God. She often quarreled with me. Dear hiker, leave here at once – otherwise she will get up and quarrel with you.”, “Christ, stand still and pray a little, here lies the farmer Jakob Nissl. He had to pay too hard a price, he died from home-brewed beer.”, “Here lies Martin Krug, who beat children, women and the organ.”, “Here in this pit lie two Miller boys. Born at Lake Chiemsee, died of a stomach ache.”, “Here lies the bailiff Isengrimm, weighed 500 pounds, nothing else is known about him.”, “Here rests Franz Josef Matt, who drank himself to death. Lord give him eternal rest and a glass of schnapps.”, “The honorable and virtuous maiden Genovefa Voggenhuberin rests, mourned by her only son.”, “The honorable maiden Nothburg Nindl lies buried here. She died in her 17th year, just when she was ready to be used.”, “Here Jakob Hosenknopf fell from the roof of the house into eternity.”, “Here lies the virgin Rosalind, born as an unwanted child. Her unknown father was a Capuchin priest.”, “Here Johanna Vogelsang is silent. She chirped all her life.”, “I started felling trees in the forest, loved the work I did. A quick death hit me there too; a falling tree killed me straight away.”, “Here lies Esser. The worms, these eaters, eat better somewhere else. Epitaph for the exceptionally thin Chapel Master Heinrich Esser.”

The "World Peace Cross" (World Peace Cross) is located in the museum cemetery. It is intended to call for peace in the world. This 7-meter-high monument was designed, financed and forged by the museum founder Hans Guggenberger and inaugurated in 2007. It is made of the materials that accompanied him throughout his working life: marble from Hagau and iron. As a symbol for the continents and for the stones that can be placed over the course of a lifetime, there are 5 differently colored columns grouped around the monument. They stand for Europe, America, Australia, Asia and Africa. Every visitor is asked to bring a small stone from their homeland and place it in the appropriate column.

Another work of art has adorned the museum cemetery since 2019. It is the largest and most modern Danse Macabre in the world. Such representations appeared in France in the 14th century and symbolize the power of death over people. They usually show happiness and dancing in the presence of death. The Danse Macabre in the museum cemetery consists of 10 Danse Macabre panels, bears the name "The Last" and was created by the Austrian sculptor Markus Thurner. The texts come from the German cabaret artist Wilfried Schmickler. The monument is 20 m long and has an area of 35 m². It is beautifully lighted at night.