Mining and local history museum - Knappenhaus Unterlaussa

On the occasion of the 1998 Upper Austrian provincial exhibition "Land of Hammers - Home of the Eisenwurzen", a faithful replica of the "Blahberg miners' house" was built in the village of Unterlaussa and made accessible to the public as a museum. For more than 20 years, this museum has been teaching people about mining in the Eisenwurzen region. You will also find objects from mining areas in Europe that are up to 4000 years old.

The main theme of the exhibition is, of course, the mining of the raw materials found in the Eisenwurzen, such as gagat (a type of coal that was already used in the Stone Age to make jewellery), hard coal, ironstone and bauxite (the only mining area in Austria), which is used as a raw material for aluminium production. Experience authentic stories of former miners and inhabitants of the mining settlement Weißwasser in a video and see original tools, the so-called Gezähe, of the miners.

Through a replica of a section of a mine tunnel, the path leads back "into the open air", where you can learn about the longest material ropeways in Central Europe at the time. In addition, the topic of aluminium, from production to the end product, is dealt with here.

On the upper floor:
Exhibition: "Finds Tell".
In the Kalkalpen National Park, historical objects such as slaughtering nails, brackets for climbing stairs and other ironware can be found time and again during hikes and mountain tours. But you can also find natural things like bone remains or red deer dropping poles. There is a story behind every find. Dr. Erich Mayrhofer, the former long-time director of the Kalkalpen National Park, had an eye for special finds from cultural and natural history. Together with exhibition designer Franz Pötscher, large parts of his collection are presented in the Knappenhaus Unterlaussa.
The content of the exhibition tells on the one hand the long history of use in the first part of the region (timber, alpine farming, mining) and on the other hand its development since the founding of the National Park in the third part. In between, the protests against the planned use of the area by modern large-scale projects are placed as a turning point in history in Part 2.

The ground floor is barrier-free, the upper floor can be reached via stairs.

“Virtual white water - the new discovery of the mining settlement in the Reichraminger Hintergebirge”
Using augmented reality (AR), the former mining settlement Weißwasser in the Reichraminger Hintergebirge (Kalkalpen National Park) can be seen and experienced virtually again. This is made possible via an APP on your own cell phone or tablet. Over a length of around 800 meters, the visitor can see the barracks, the cable car station as well as the locksmith's shop, carpentry shop, sawmill and fire department garage and much more in a realistic form on the display of their cell phone or tablet. You can find the download link to the app on the “Knappenhaus Unterlaussa” homepage or in the app store under “WeißwasserAR”.

=> Since there is NO cell phone reception possible on site, it is absolutely necessary that the app is downloaded onto the smartphone/tablet BEFORE <=