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When we discussed the possibility of going to Swarovski’s Crystal World (just outside of Innsbruck) with our hotel staff, they noted that one-quarter of their guests come here specifically to go there! The attraction garners between 500,00–600,000 visitors each year. We saved two euros each by booking our tickets on line in the morning.
The weather in Austria has been especially nice, and warm, with temperatures in the mid-60s. We have been told how lucky we are! Crystal World wasn’t especially busy, which made it a very pleasant experience. We do note that the park could have more and better signage, as we had to finally ask an employee where the actual museum was with all the various rooms. It is under the lawn on top of the Giant, Riese, of course! But even the signs in the outdoor garden would mention a feature (with no arrows!), then the next several signs would not mention it. We wandered around quite a bit, convinced that we had been sold a ticket of – confusion. But we figured it out.
On some attractions, the presence of crystals wasn’t always obvious, but on most, the glitz was on full display. The museum has a total of 16 chambers, each designed by a different artist. Some were very commercial, just showing Swarovski creations, but the ones we show below were the more interesting rooms. Those that use mirrors and light to full advantage were a bit disorienting and dizzying. They also tended to be somewhat dark, but oh, what an experience! It was well worth the admission and an entire day.
We ate at the onsite restaurant and were just delighted by the price, the portion, and the taste. It was excellent. We can wholeheartedly recommend Crystal World to anyone traveling through Austria—it was a terrific experience all around.
“Der Riese,” the Giant, greets everyone to Crystal World. His facial features are comprised of crystals, of course. The museum is underneath the extensive lawn around his head.
These “trees” are called the Crystal Cloud. Made of 800,000 hand-mounted Swarovski crystals, it is the largest work of its kind in the world.
This piece is titled Prologue III and is decorated with 8,000 Blue Shade crystals that catch the sun’s rays in a different way every few seconds.
A black and white carousel, created by the Spanish artist Jaime Hayon in 2019.It isn’t easily apparent, but the carousel contains 15 million crystals.
The fantasy characters on the carousel were inspired by many different cultures, customs, and fairy tales.Rides on it are free with park admission!
Entrance to the Crystal World store is sort of like entering a time tunnel, but inside is a huge retail shop (which you can only exit by walking through the entire place). To get to our destinations, we had to “exit through the gift shop” — twice.
A small museum inside the shop has a few interesting items, like this bra.Apparently, many fashion houses have their models display crystal undergarments.
A Swarovski headpiece.
A glittering globe under a glittering crystal dome heaven.
In the first chamber of the museum, Blue Hall, is this horse, Chetak, the legendary warhorse of the Indian king Maharana Pratap, who saved the king’s life. It is encrusted with thousands of crystals.
The staircase down to the exhibit, Silent Light.
The temperature in this chamber is 14°F (-10°C), with real snow falling and beautiful Christmas music playing. We threw snowballs!
The Crystal Dome is a geodesic dome consisting of 595 mirrors.
The effect inside is that of being trapped inside a crystal. It is a little dizzying, but glorious, and puts you off-center.
This chamber is the Art of Performance, with characters from Moulin Rouge.
It’s hard to imagine wearing this dress!
This chamber is “Crystallizing Identity,” with an extensive network of blood-red fabric and thread, dotted with crystals. It brings to life a Japanese legend that people who are destined to meet are connected by a red thread.
This blurry installation is the Chandelier of Grief, the world’s only permanently exhibited, publicly accessible infinity mirror room.
With the title, Eden, this chamber contains a stylized forest of still and tranquil light.
This Pulse Voronoi room of 7,000 suspended crystals was designed by exploding one cubic meter (35 cubic feet) of clear crystal.
Each crystal shard is unique, and has a light that pulsates to the recorded heartbeat of a past participant. By placing our palms under one of the sensors, our heartbeats were part of the experience!
Kristallwelten has a wonderful restaurant. We tried some schnitzel, which was great, and thought we had ordered a common side salad. But what a surprise! The delicious salad had 18 different ingredients and was huge. You can see our Alps view!
An overview of the garden. Adjacent to the carousel is the labyrinth, which of course, like all good mazes, stymied us for a while. We were caught inside, afraid we might miss our bus back to our hotel!
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