Archaeological Museum Defereggen

In the Defereggental valley you can embark on a time journey which dates back to the Middle Stone Age. In this East Tyrolean valley, important findings were made, for that reason the museum in the basement of the music pavilion of St. Jakob in Defereggen is not only a local but more an archaeological museum.

The oldest human traces of East Tyrol were arlready found in the 1960's, to be exact a Mesolithic hunters' place on the Hirschbühel hill. It dates back to the Middle Stone Age (8,0000 - 5,000 BC) and today the tools and weapons from flint are exhibited in the museum. The finds which were discovered during the church excavation of St Veit, are from the Roman Age.

The exhibition shows even more: finds from the mines of the Trojertal valley and historical documents are shown as well as a 1,000-year-old dugout which was found some years ago in Lake Obersee at the Passo Stalle mountain pass. As it is the highest located ship find of Europe, it has become famous very soon. Given that the Passo Stallo mountain pass is right in between the Valle di Anterselva in South Tyrol (Italy) and the Defereggental valley in East Tyrol (Austria), the information is available both in German and Italian.