Museum “Waldglashütte” (Forest Glassworks) / Glaserwiese

On the so-called “Glaserwiese” (glazier’s meadow) in Fallegg, not far from the Klugbauer, the uniquely preserved ruins of a former glassworks of the Augustinian Canons’ Monastery of Stainz extend at an altitude of 1125 m above sea level. The glassworks was in operation from about 1620 until 1660.

Info about the Museum “Waldglashütte”

Museum Waldglashütte (branch of the museum Archeo Norico Deutschlandsberg)
8563 Sommereben, Fallegg 28 – footpath from inn and hotel Klugbauer
All year free access to the attic room (museum)
Guided tours by appointment:
Mag. Andreas Bernhard 0676/3425989
Karl Dudek: 0660/6868842

The main furnace, which was archaeologically investigated by the Burgmuseum Deutschlandsberg in 2011, is one of the most important technical relics of early modern glass production in Austria due to its good structural condition. A spacious wooden shelter and museum building erected over the glass furnace ruins allows visitors to experience the technology of glass production in the original setting in a unique way.

All raw materials necessary for glass production were available in the vicinity of the glassworks. The most important raw material for glass production was quartz, which was finely ground in a beater after a short heating. The hardwood for firing the melting furnaces also came from the surrounding extensive forests. Numerous charcoal kilns supplied the ash which was produced by charring the wood of mighty beeches. The potash leached from the ash in a complex process was used by the glassblowers as an additive to the molten glass – the potash significantly lowered the melting point of the quartz.
The combined melting and cooling furnace (lehr) of the glassworks has a length of 6.30 m and a width of 2.55 m and was built from on-site slabs of gneiss in a bond of clay.
Inside the furnace, which had to withstand temperatures of over 1200 degrees Celsius, there were several crucibles (harbors) of refractory clay on a simple grate, in which the glass batch was melted. Through closable openings in the furnace dome, glassblowers working on a wooden work platform used their glassmaking pipes to selectively remove batches of glass for further processing. Finished glassware went into the adjoining lehr to cool slowly to room temperature.

The names of former glassworks personnel can be partially reconstructed through entries in the church records of the parish of St. Stefan ob Stainz for the period 1635-1640, as evidenced by the mentions of an ash burner, several glaziers, a master craftsman, a night stoker and a glassworks clerk.

The glassworks produced a wide variety of hollow glasses, such as the then common “bandwurmglas” (tapeworm glass), knobbed and ribbed cups, variously designed flasks, jugs and plates made of light green, discolored, red and, more rarely, blue glass. Characteristic pieces of waste also came to light, proving intensive window glass production.

The museum building, designed in unique wooden architecture, offers a lot of space on the ground floor to look at the furnaces of the glassworks. In the attic, which is open to the public, display boards as well as original finds convey an authentic picture of this long-forgotten time of the glassmakers on Reinischkogel hill.

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Text: Mag. Andreas Bernhard