Dear visitors,
the museum is closed from 10th November 2025 to 14th April 2026.
We look forward to seeing you again in spring!
Research
Along with collecting, keeping and displaying/communicating, researching is one of the traditional core tasks of a museum. Researching also includes documentation and scientific investigation.
Current research projects
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“From straw to shelter: past, present and future of thatched roofs in South Tyrol”
For centuries, farm buildings with thatched roofs shaped the cultural landscape of South Tyrol, particularly in the regions of the Tschögglberg, the Ritten plateau, the Sarntal and Eisacktal valleys, and the Schlern area. Today, only a handful of these structures remain, and they are severely threatened by decay.
The project examines the historical stock of thatched roofs during the periods 1930–1945, 1970–1985, as well as the present-day situation. Among other approaches, cooperation with the Free University of Bozen-Bolzano will involve AI-assisted image analysis to support the screening of photographic databases. In further collaboration with the Laimburg Research Centre, alpine rye varieties will be investigated with regard to their suitability as roofing straw.
Another key focus of the project is the documentation of the traditional craft technique of thatched roofing. As the barn of the Spatauf farmstead—which was relocated from Sarnthein to the South Tyrolean Museum of Folklore in Dietenheim in 1983/84—requires a new thatched roof, the work process can be documented in written, visual, and filmic form. In this way, the project aims not only to stimulate interest in traditional craft techniques but also to create a practical guide for the future maintenance of thatched roofs.
Project Manager:
Bianca ZerobinProject Partners:
Thomas Bertagnolli (curator, Museum Tiroler Bauernhöfe)
Karin Dalla Torre (state conservator, Provincial Office for Cultural Heritage, Autonomous Province of Bolzano–South Tyrol)
Oswald Lanz (Free University of Bozen-Bolzano)
Egbert Pöttler (chief curator, Austrian Open-Air Museum Stübing)
Manuel Pramsohler (Laimburg Research Centre)
Past research projects
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"Typically Bruneck? Regional tableware from the 18th to the 20th century as a source of the everyday, trade and craft"
It examined the hand-manufactured ceramic tableware in and around Bruneck from the 18th to the 20th century.
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Qualitative inventory of the headgear collection of the Folklore Museum
In 2020 the headgear collection was revised. The aim was to obtain a better overview of the collection through a qualitative and quantitative inventory and to update and supplement the information available on the individual objects.
In total there are over 190 hats of all kinds in the collection. Traditional hats and straw hats make up a large part of this, but special items such as baptismal caps or cylinders with the original leather cases are also part of the inventory.
Hat by hat was examined and a written and photographic documentation of each object was created. Furthermore, the dimensions, the materials and the state of preservation were recorded.
The hats were then packed in acid-free archival boxes for adequate and proper storage.
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The Ragginer family
It includes the inventorying and the transcription of the literary estate of the farm doctors Ragginer from Lüsen.
Collection
Since its establishment in 1976, the Folklore Museum has been collecting ethnological objects with a Tyrolean connection in order to ensure a holistic presentation and fulfil its scientific mission of collecting, documenting, keeping and displaying.
When in 1982 the South Tyrolean Wine Museum was incorporate into the Folklore Museum, the Wine Museum’s inventory expanded the existing collection.
A further expansion was witnessed in 1991 with the establishment of the second branch, the Museum of Hunting and Fishing at Wolfsthurn Castle.
Since its establishment in 1976, the museum has collected over 65,000 items, some of which can be seen online: the online catalogue is constantly being expanded.
The museum possesses two photo collections, which can be seen online:
the Hugo Atzwanger collection,
the Erika Groth Schmachtenberger collection.
Inventory groups and emphasis
The collection
... contains objects from popular traditions and everyday culture, ergological objects, items related to occasions and customs;
... covers the era of preindustrial society from the 17th century up to the present day, with an emphasis on the period between 1850 and 1950;
... reflects interests and developments in ethnology and fulfils the tasks of an ethnological and open-air museum with objects from rural life and inventory groups such as popular religious practices, popular medicine, popular art, clothes and textiles, handicrafts and implements, furniture and furnishings, historical photographs, items from the archives, winegrowing, hunting and fishing, and musical instruments.
Library
The museum’s reference library contains publications on ethnological, cultural-historical and museum-educational topics, mostly in German. For more information please call (+39) 0474 255 100 or email info_at_volkskundemuseum.it.
