Monumental dance of death of the present
"The End" is considered the greatest modern Danse Macabre of the present day
According to Siegmund Kogler from Metnitz, president of the European Dance of Death Association, the cycle of dances of death unveiled at the museum cemetery in Kramsach entitled "Das Letzte" (The End) is worldwide the most monumental of its kind. Kogler points out that the first images spread throughout France in the late Middle Ages. The intention was to show people - regardless of their status - their transience in text and image. Nevertheless, "people who deal intensively with death are cheerful people", Kogler said at the unveiling of the new dance of death in Kramsach, quoting the founder of the Dance of Death Association, Karl Josef Steininger from Dachau.
Acting upon a suggestion by the wrought iron blacksmith Hans Guggenberger, sculptor Markus Thurner from Maurach am Achensee created ten modern death dance panels punctuated by twelve scenes. The faces are unleashed physiognomy. They make visible the text that prophesies an inevitable fate for humanity in our time. As in Dante's Divine Comedy, here too the tormentors seem tormented by their own deeds. Thurner: "Death comes to the dance, death bends over a sleeping person, it appears in a frightening manner, insidiously emerges from the background and it reaches for you - it reaches for every single person! It's a MEMENTO MORI!"
The „Das Letzte“ dance of death is 40 metres long and has an area of 60 m² making it the most monumental and modern scene worldwide. It was designed by Markus Thurner and then made in COR-TEN (weathering) steel by the Sagzahnschmiede Kramsach craftsmen. The text, set in verse, was written by the well-known German cabaret artist Wilfried Schmickler.
For Hans Guggenberger and Martin Reiter - Museumsfriedhof Tirol association board members - a long cherished wish came true with this Dance of Death display. To quote Martin Reitzer: "Our president Hans Guggenberger is the driving force behind making the dance of death, "Das Letzte", at the museum possible. His desire to show a contemporary dance of death representation forms a transition from the here and now and a connection to the humorous graveless museum cemetery with its amusing inscriptions an epitaphs."
The museum cemetery is now one unique sight richer. Approx. 180,000 visitors a year enjoy discovering this unique facility.
Entrance fee: € 4,00 per person.
Opening hours
Open Mo - Fr also on bank holidays!
Please note - the museum shop, the space flight exhibition and the WC facilities will be closed as of November!