Customs & culture

The Wildschönau is a valley where customs and tradition play a major role. Not everything is possible in this day and age and yet customs are maintained, even if sometimes only on a small scale. Some traditional groups contribute to the original life of the Wildschönau with their performances at festivals and celebrations.

The Wildschönau is characterised by its agriculture. Lots of neat farms are part of its typical landscape. The fields in the gentle valley - the wild, beautiful Au - are lovelingly tended.
The Wildschönau has 260 working farms of varying sizes. You could probably classify them all as mountain farms. They were formed by the division of the first original farms.

The highest farm "Stödl" on the Oberau Sonnberg is 1334 meters above sea level. The second highest is "Oberholzalm" (1329 m) at the foot of the Gratlspitz. Almost every house has a cross on the gable and most of them have a bell tower on the roof. It is a nice tradition that all farms, and dwellings, cows and horses have a name, indicating a particularly close community of fate of man, animal and dwelling. Almost all farms now have an access road.
There are also numerous hereditary farms in the Wildschönau. To obtain the title of "Erbhof",  a farm must be owned by the same family for at least 200 years.
An insight into the life of mountain farmers in earlier times can be gained at the z'Bach Mountain Farming Museum. The life of the farmers has become somewhat easier over the past couple of generations, however, not many farmers can make a living out of it these days and most farmers have a "day job". The farmers are, however, significantly responsible for the appearance of the Wildschönau thanks to their landscape maintenance.

The Wildschönau is one of the regions in Austria with the most alpine pastures. The alpine pastures are popular hiking and excursion destinations.

Due to its slate rock, the Wildschönau is an area with a particularly high number of alpine pastures. In summer, 46 alpine pastures take in cattle, horses, sheep, and goats and are particularly popular hiking destinations. Each alpine pasture has so-called “grass rights” for a certain number of animals. The farmers of the Wildschönau have more than 1600 of these grass rights. In the past, the larger alpine pastures were divided into “Kaser,” but now they are managed in a communal alpine hut.

Hundreds of animals are brought to the alpine pastures at the end of May/beginning of June. The highest alpine pasture in the Wildschönau is the “Seefeldalm” in Auffach, which is located at 1,979 meters. Some alpine pastures are used for dairy farming, others for beef cattle (no dairy cattle), and others are mixed. The animals are cared for by shepherds, milkers, and cheese makers.

They are all proud of their profession and love spending the summer on the alpine pastures, which also means hard work. One of the best-known cheese makers is Johann Schönauer from the Schönangeralm. This alpine pasture is the pride of 25 farms. Around 260 animals spend their “summer vacation” from June to September on 680 hectares of alpine pastureland and three alpine pastures. Every day, 2,000 liters of milk are processed. In the show dairy, you can watch Johann as he skillfully produces delicious specialties such as mountain cheese, Emmental, Camembert, Tilsiter, and herb cheese. The entire production is marketed directly. Good cheese is also available at the Brixentaler Holzalm, also known as the “Kasalm,” where award-winning cheese is also produced.

The 1st music high school in Tirol, four brass bands, 15 choirs and numerous small formations are a guarantee for music at every turn. Music has always played a major role in the Wildschönau and accordingly, there are many musical events in the valley of music.
The people of Wildschönau are particularly fond of brass bands and folk music. Four concerts are held weekly during the summer season. There is live music at the farmer's market, at one of the beautiful mountain masses, at live music evenings in the hotels or at one of the performances of the numerous choirs. The four village brass bands provide a good sound throughout the Wildschönau.
Spring begins with the traditional spring concerts of the village bands, where their new repertoires are proudly performed.  In the summer months, weekly concerts in Niederau, Oberau, Mühltal and Auffach take place.

Even the high school is a music school, the first in the whole county. In the past, people sang and played at work, in their homes and in social circles, but today the old songs are mostly heard at special events and concerts.

In 1900, the Oberau painter and patriot Mathias Riedmann founded the historical military group, the "Wildschönauer Sturmlöder", also called the "Alte Tracht". He equipped the group with all the weapons and clothing from 1809 that could still be found.
Just as the present Rifle Company is the traditional group of the regular riflemen of 1809, the Sturmlöder are the traditional successors of the last contingent from the War of Independence. In addition to old muzzle-loading rifles, cutting and thrusting weapons, the Sturmlöder have a reconstructed wooden cannon, which can also be used for shooting. As well as the parading on various occasions, the preservation and maintenance of local customs has been made a task of the Sturmlöder.