I’d like to share a dwarf garden in Salzburg, Austria with you. Yeah, I know this isn’t exactly what you call a museum, but museums grew out of people having collections at their homes, so this is sorta like an outdoor garden museum.
Also known as the Zwerglgarten, the dwarves were created in 1715 by Prince Archbishop Franz Anton Harrach. Apparently many dwarves lived with the archbishop and served as his entertainers. The Mirabell Palace is located next to the garden and was built by Prince Archbishop Wolf Dietrich in 1606 for his mistress and her children. Sometime in the 1800s Crown Prince Ludwig of Bavaria auctioned off the statues because he was concerned the “goiters and hunchbacks” would harm his wife and child. They were forgotten for a hundred years until a group of citizens convinced the city to buy them back as a legacy to the city’s heritage.
