Porcia Castle in Spittal an der Drau

Porcia Castle in Spittal an der Drau with Local Heritage museum
The Porcia Comedy Theatre takes place in summer, in the courtyard of the Renaissance building and the castle is always a point of attraction for trips to the town combined with a stroll.


On the top floor is the Cultural History Museum, with personal possessions from bygone centuries, which reflect the life of the farmers, country folk and urbanites on display and gives a good overview of life in the country.
The rural culture of Upper Carinthia


The Cultural Museum in Spittal/Drau, founded in 1958 and completely renovated from 1991 to 1993, has one of the most extensive displays of the life and work of the mountain farmers in two floors of the Porcia Castle. Farm rooms, kitchens for smoking, alpine and “Brechel” cottages bear witness to the frugal and simple lives of the farmers in Carinthia in past centuries. Farming equipment, wooden machines and pre-industrial technology testify to the hard work and inventiveness of our grandfathers and great-grandfathers.


Mining and Handcrafts
Besides farming, mining and handcrafts were the most important basic economic sectors in Upper Carinthia for centuries. For this reason, the museum displays equipment and documentation of arsenic, gold and granite mining as well as glass blowing, barrel making and pottery, just to name a few handcrafts.


The old School
An essential part of the collection in the Cultural Museum is that dedicated to the history of schools, which includes the development of the study of education in general and specifically the changes in teaching methods and equipment (from the blackboard to the film projector), as well as a completely furnished school class from the previous century, all contained in three different rooms.


Winter sport and Mountaineering
Tourism started as early as the end of the 19th century in Upper Carinthia. Its beginnings and development, especially in winter sports and mountaineering are similarly well documented.


The Prince’s Chamber
The magnificence of the princes and lords stands in stark contrast to the simple beauty of the farming household artefacts. The Prince’s Chamber in the Cultural Museum contains the only preserved state furniture from the previous inventory of the Porcia Castle and gives a glimpse into the lives of the lords in the 17th and 18th centuries.