The Inspirational Indoors
Staying inside can be tough, especially as the weather starts to warm up, but right now it’s imperative. Today, we’re bringing you three places in Austria that remind us of the great things that can happen indoors, looking at nature in a new light in Vorarlberg, admiring installation art in Tirol and creating cosiness in SalzburgerLand. We hope that Austria’s SkySpace, Swarovski Crystal Worlds and Christmas Museum will bring you some escapism while you stay indoors for the most important reason of all.
SkySpace Lech, Vorarlberg
American artist James Turrell is famous for his conceptual ‘SkySpace’ installations. The Skyspace Lech is a 15m tunnel leading to an oval room with an opening in its roof, built into a hillside at 1,780m above sea level in Oberlech - Tannegg. Visitors are encouraged to take a seat and contemplate the aperture, viewing the sky from a new perspective. As the day runs its course, the colours and shapes beaming into the SkySpace shift and change, the play between the interior chamber’s lightshow and the nature outside creating a constantly evolving artwork. The SkySpace Lech is wonderful room in which to take pause, relax, and contemplate the way in which the beauty of the natural world reaches us even when we’re sat inside.
Location: Tannegg, Gemeinde Lech, Austria
Opening times: June 1st – October 31st: SkySpace Lech opens one hour before sunrise and closes one hour after sunset. November 1st – April 20th: 12am – 8pm, closed on Mondays. April 20th – May 31st: 9am – 6pm.
Price: General admission is free. Weekly guided tours take from 1st June – April 20th, for which tickets are €15.00 per person.
Swarovski Crystal Worlds, Tirol
Visiting Tirol’s Swarovski Crystal Worlds is something akin to stepping into a new, dazzling realm. Its installations include a Crystal Cloud floating above a black Mirror Pool, adorned with 800,000 hand-mounted Swarovski crystals, and a giant’s head forming the fountain for an outdoor reflection pond. Inside this sculpture await seventeen ‘Chambers of Wonder’. The Crystal Dome is comprised of 595 mirrors that give the viewer the feeling of standing inside a crystal, while Yayoi Kusama’s Infinity Mirror Room houses a rotating ‘Chandelier of Grief’. From Fredrikson Stallard’s surreal Eden chamber to the dazzling neon world of Manish Arora’s Ready to Love, the interiors the Swarovski Crystal Worlds are quite unlike any other rooms in the world.
Location: Kristallweltenstraße 1, 6112 Wattens
Opening times: Open daily from 8.30am – 7.30pm (10pm in July and August).
Price: €19.00 for adults, €7.50 for children aged 6 - 14, €42.50 for a family (2 adults, two children aged 6 -16). Free admission for children up to age 5.
Christmas Museum, SalzburgerLand
Across the UK, people have been putting up their Christmas lights, decorations and even trees in an attempt to raise spirits during the lockdown. One museum in Austria has been keeping the joviality of Christmas alive every day for the past four decades. The Salzburg Christmas Museum on Mozart Square exhibits a private collection of vintage and antique advent calendars, decorations, gifts, nativity scenes, nutcrackers and toys, all of which hold special cultural and historical significance to Christmas in Austria. Guests can enjoy the displays in rooms furnished with cosy fireplaces and Christmas trees before stopping by the museum café for a festive hot chocolate, whatever the weather.
Location: Mozartplatz 2, 5020 Salzburg
Opening times: Wednesday – Sunday, 10am – 6pm
Price: €6.00 for adults, €3.00 for children.
High-res images are available to download below. For further information, please contact eleanor.moody@austria.info.