Esterházy Treasure Chamber
Behind thick walls and safeguarded with an intricate system of locks, in 1692 Prince Paul I (1635-1713) set up a treasure chamber in the heart of Forchtenstein Castle – the only Baroque art collection in Europe to remain in its original location.
The cabinets made in the seventeenth-century to hold the collections teem with a rich and kaleidoscopic variety of objects; particularly striking besides flora and fauna, ethnography and the arts and sciences from all over the world are the precious Augsburg automata and clocks, as well as other exotic objects.
The innumerable filigree works of the art of carving in ivory and bone are nothing short of incredible; they have now found safe storage for their conservation in modern, air-conditioned glass display cases. Highlight of the Esterházy Treasure Chamber was and is its collection of silver furniture, today one of the largest of its kind in Europe, which is displayed in the exhibition area of the Gallery of Ancestors.