Heatwave cuts museum visits and complicates conservation

Salzburg museums are recording fewer visitors during the prolonged heatwave, while high temperatures and humidity are making it harder to protect exhibits, ORF reports.

At the House of Nature museum in Salzburg, attendance is noticeably lower on hot days, director Robert Lindner said. He described this year as below average, noting that up to two-thirds of visitors, depending on the season, come from Salzburg and nearby areas. When temperatures rise above 30 degrees Celsius, many choose to go swimming instead of visiting a museum.

The heat is also affecting the exhibits. Large parts of the House of Nature do not have air conditioning, and maintaining suitable conservation conditions in its collections requires increasing effort, Lindner said.

A similar situation exists at DomQuartier, a museum complex in Salzburg. Parts of the museum, including the Dommuseum, are not air-conditioned. Curator Reinhard Gratz said relative humidity was more important for the exhibits than temperature alone. In summer, moisture from the walls enters the rooms, so the museum uses dehumidifiers. The display cases have their own special climate.

Mobile ventilation units help offset fluctuations by removing moisture in summer and adding it in winter. Installing comprehensive climate-control systems at both museums would be difficult for structural and financial reasons.