Ski and Heimat Museum

The Ski and Heimat Museum in St. Anton chronicles the history of skiing in the Arlberg from its beginnings in the late 19th century to the present day. It is a surprisingly absorbing small museum, well worth an hour on a bad-weather day or a rest day. The exhibits cover the evolution of equipment from wooden boards with leather straps to modern carbon-fibre skis, and the development of the resort from an isolated Alpine village to one of the world's premier ski destinations.

The story of Hannes Schneider — the father of modern ski instruction and the man who made St. Anton famous — is the emotional core of the museum. The collection includes original photographs, film footage, and equipment from the resort's early decades. The museum is housed in a traditional building in the village centre; ask at the tourist office for current opening hours.

things to do museum
A story
The museum's centrepiece is the story of Hannes Schneider, who turned St. Anton into a global ski school in the 1920s and 1930s by developing and teaching the Arlberg technique — a system of parallel turns that became the foundation of modern ski instruction. When the Nazis annexed Austria in 1938, they arrested Schneider partly because he had Jewish friends. He was freed only when a wealthy American ski enthusiast negotiated his release in exchange for emigrating to the United States, where he founded a ski school in New Hampshire.