Museum Burg Golling

Museum Burg Golling stands in the market town of Golling an der Salzach, a few kilometres south of Salzburg. The building is a medieval fortress on a rocky outcrop above the Salzach valley. The museum occupies several floors of the old keep and adjacent wings. The museum began in 1968 with talks about creating a local heritage collection. Erich Urbanek, an unpaid curator, organised the first rooms in 1971. Over the decades the displays grew into a respected regional museum. Fossils from the northern Limestone Alps form the core of the natural history section, including Omphalosaurus wolfi, a 200-million-year-old ancestor of ichthyosaurs. Copies of prehistoric rock carvings such as the famous ‘Jagdfries’ are also shown. The former courtroom now serves as a registry office and event space, while its walls display historic views of Golling. Visitors find the second floor’s small exhibition room and a cinema installed in 2006. The Pflegerzimmer holds local antiques and a coin collection spanning seven centuries. The grand stateroom with its princely coats of arms once hosted archbishops and now displays sacred objects, including a 1608 crucifix from Kroatenhöhle. The old castle chapel, with its 1752 rococo altar, is opened only during guided tours led by the curator. The former interrogation chamber at the foot of the stairs contains legal relics from the court of the Burgpfleger.