Bombs on Michelangelo - themed tour

The secrets of the miners!
The Altaussee salt mine is Austria's largest still active salt mining site. Its veins are the mysterious tunnels that lead you directly into the fascinating world of the miners. With each step you penetrate deeper into their stories and fates.

The exhibition "The Luck of Art" tells the exciting story of why the Altaussee salt mine served as a storage facility for art treasures of immeasurable value in 1943 and how they were saved from destruction by the Nazis by courageous miners from Aussee. What makes it so special is that the exhibition is located in the very place where the Nazis had stored the art objects - in the 270 m² "Springerwerk".

In these chambers were stored paintings by Jan Vermeer, Pieter Brueghel and Rembrandt, but also the Tassilo chalice from Kremsmünster Abbey, the giant Bible from St. Florian Abbey or the spectacular Ghent altar by the van Eyck brothers. The showpiece of the art treasures hidden in Altaussee was certainly Michelangelo's Madonna from the Church of Our Lady in Bruges. It was stolen from the church by the Nazis in 1944 and found its way to Altaussee in an adventurous way. After the war it was brought back to Belgium undamaged by American art experts. For the exhibition in the Salzwelten Altaussee, a cast of the statue true to the original was specially made in Bruges.

By the way: The adventurous story about stolen art objects, secret hiding places in the Altaussee mine and brave men also provided some of the Hollywood-ready material for the movie "The Monuments Men." In it, Hollywood stars George Clooney, Matt Damon and Bill Murray in their roles as American art experts save Europe's art treasures from destruction by the Nazis and from the clutches of communism. Predicate: Heroic high voltage! But honestly: The original Altaussee story can easily keep up!

Detaillierte Infos, E-Tickets und Veranstaltungen finden Sie auf der Salzwelten-Homepage

Suitable for: Children are allowed to visit the mine from the age of four years.