Alte Prager Hütte

The Alte Prager Hütte sits high on a ridge at 2 489 metres, north-east of the Grossvenediger in East Tyrol. Built in 1872 by the Prague section of the German Alpine Club, it was soon wrecked by an avalanche and rebuilt in 1877 for forty-five people. Repairs followed in 1923 and 1972, but by 2009 the hut could no longer pass safety checks. In 2011 the building was placed under Denkmalschutz because few simple Alpine huts survive so unchanged in the high mountains. The Deutsche Alpenverein turned the hut into Austria’s highest museum, reopening it in July 2019. Roland Stierle, the vice-president, unveiled the new glass-walled entrance that lets visitors look straight into the restored interior. The museum keeps the original furnishings and serves as a base for research by the Hohe Tauern National Park. A weather station beside the hut photographs the Schlatenkees glacier and the Grossvenediger twice daily, while temperature data appear every fifteen minutes online. A walk of three and a half to four hours from Matrei leads up through Innergschlöß to the hut. From its door you can reach the Neue Prager Hütte in an hour or set off on climbs such as the Grossvenediger, the Rainerhorn or the Kristallwand. The building also hosts a small weather station whose images and readings help scientists study the mountains.