Hohenems: Culture and History

You can explore Hohenems on a trip by focusing on different themes: the largely preserved Jewish Quarter, the palace, and Alt-Ems Castle highlight history and architecture, while museums, the Rhine floodplains, the weekly market, and the chocolate world round out the picture. When planning, you can decide whether you are most interested in historic sites, cultural collections, or nature and culinary experiences.

Jewish Heritage and Historic Buildings

The former Jewish Quarter is an almost completely preserved ensemble with a rich Jewish history. Its surviving buildings include a synagogue, a mikveh, a schoolhouse, and a poorhouse. At the Jewish Museum Hohenems, the permanent exhibition in Villa Heimann-Rosenthal traces the history of the Jewish community from its beginnings to its end under National Socialism after 1938. The quarter and the exhibition shed light on different aspects of the same historical subject: its architectural traces and the history of the community.

There are 370 surviving gravestones in the Jewish cemetery, which has been listed as a historic monument since 1967. It is fenced off. Visitors can obtain the key from the Jewish Museum by leaving an identity document as a deposit. Check this access rule before your visit.

Hohenems Palace is considered the most important Renaissance building in western Austria. It is also connected with the history of the Nibelungenlied: Manuscripts C and A were found in the palace library in 1755 and 1779. At the same time, the palace is privately owned and not freely accessible. Guided tours are offered regularly; as dates may vary, check tour availability before travelling.

Alt-Ems Castle was built in the 12th century; its complex was 800 metres long. The barbican, walls of the palas, and the base of the powder tower have become visible again. The tower’s loopholes look out over the Rhine Valley. The Große Schlossbergrunde takes just a few minutes to reach the ruins of Alt-Ems Castle and the “Gsätzle” viewpoint—one specific way to visit both of these destinations on the same circular route.

Museums, Music, and Literature

The Franz Schubert Museum is housed in a former rectory whose foundations date back to the beginning of the 16th century. In rooms built shortly before Schubert’s birth, the museum traces his life and work. A listening room is devoted to his music. The museum garden offers views of Hohenems’s historic town centre, adding a glimpse of the city to the exploration of the composer.

At the Vorarlberg Literature House, writing and language are brought to life as an ongoing process. To do so, the house uses selected, representative rooms in the historic Villa Franziska and Iwan Rosenthal. The murals by artist Heilgard Bertel in the lower church of St. Konrad are also part of local art history.

The museum gardens also have their own distinctive features. The garden of the Alte-Zeiten-Museum preserves various old varieties of grain. Crops once grown in the region are also cultivated there for display. Stoffels Säge-Mühle illustrates the development of milling technology from 1880 to computer-controlled mills with 35 milling machines and other exhibits. The mill also documents 2,000 years of milling technology from a cultural-historical perspective.

Rhine Floodplains, Cycle Route, and Regional Highlights

The Rheinauen leisure centre is located in Hohenems/Altach, in the heart of the Old Rhine nature reserve. It has more than 130,000 square metres of bathing area and also includes a 400-metre-long branch of the Old Rhine. This makes both the size of the bathing area and a specific feature of the river landscape central to a visit. The “Über die Grenze” audio cycle route runs along the Old Rhine to Hohenems and then passes the Rheinauen leisure centre.

Fenkart Schokoladenwelt offers another activity during your stay. Its interactive tour lets you explore independently every step from processing cocoa beans to making various types of chocolate and sweet specialities. Visitors can also make their own chocolate bar there. If you plan to take part in this activity, check its availability before your visit.

The Hohenems weekly market is held every Thursday from 8:00 a.m. to 12:00 p.m., except on public holidays. When planning your day, both the day of the week and the public holiday exception are therefore relevant. Together with its museums, historic buildings, and Rhine floodplains, Hohenems offers a range of themes to help you plan your stay.

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