Baroque Nativity Scene

The baroque cot, which is over 300 years old, is housed in its own cot museum in Frankenmarkt. It does not correspond to the conventional form of our Christmas cot. It is much more of a baroque cot, a magnificent installation that attempts to transport the Christmas event to a rich royal city.

In 1720, an unknown client ordered a nativity scene from Anton Koch in Mondsee, i.e. the former
in the former Guggenbichler workshop. The splendidly dressed 45 cm high jointed dolls with extremely elaborately carved heads and inserted glass eyes date from this early period.

The same workshop in Mondsee supplied figures without glass eyes a second time, in 1750,
In 1795 another order was placed with Johann Georg Schwanthaler in Gmunden, and in 1842
in 1842 additions were made by an unknown master.

The Frankenmarkt nativity scene does not place the Christmas event in a rocky landscape, but in the magnificent setting of palace architecture.

Around the middle of the 19th century, however, the palace cot was transformed into a landscape crib with nativity scenes.
landscape cot with a cot mountain and wilderness according to the Salzkammergut tradition.

After meagre repairs in 1910 and 1925, the cot was almost doomed to decay. The renovation work was carried out through the good cooperation of the parish, the community, the diocese and the province. A special cot museum was created in the former flat of the cooperator and after about 3000 hours of work the museum was opened in 1972.