The Emperor Franz Joseph Hat Museum is an interactive museum situated in the middle of a 300-year-old monastery wine cellar. In addition to valuable collector's items in the showcases, the hat museum offers individual hats from the "good old times" which may be worn during the guided tour of the interactive museum.
The
main emphasis of the hat museum is on hats from the time of Emperor Franz Joseph
I, the height of headwear fashion in Vienna. The multitude of headwear of the
noble Viennese society and the splendid uniforms of the Imperial Army were outstanding.
As well as the particularly valuable individual pieces to be seen in the showcases, the hat collection is presented in such a way that the visitor, instead of just looking at museum pieces, can actually 'experience' the active effect of history and spirit of the Imperial times by wearing an original Viennese hat.
This experience can be achieved in such a way that during the museum tours the hats from the collection can be worn. Thus the visitor can experience the 'good old times' and, by candlelight, one could be mistaken for a member of Viennese society from the 19th century. The guests can then take part in some wine-tasting and traditional Viennese customs in the wine cellar.
Through
the wearing of the hats the visitors slip into the roles of the personalities
of Viennese society of the past, and are then animated to take an active part
in some old Austrian customs (such as wine-tasting, weddings etc.) as well as
in the Imperial Court customs of the 19th century.
The guests plunge into this time and experience, by wearing a particular hat,
the status of its previous wearer and how the old Vienna society was.
