Snow Globes

 

Did you know that the snow globe was invented in Vienna? Neither did I before I started making a list of things to do in the city. I mean why would I know that? I'm not some huge snow globe fan or anything, although I have been known to have bought one or two in my time. But it's true. They were invented in 1900. I read it either on the internet or my Lonely Planet Vienna guide when I was prepping for this trip.

So, in an ordinary time of year (i.e. not Christmas) and with a different invention, this little known fact would have changed the agenda for our vacation not one bit. I mean stuff has been invented all over the world. I can't go chasing down the origin story of every invention man has ever come up with, especially ones that amount to (today, at least) little more than a cheap souvenir. But the circumstances of our visit to Vienna in December 2022 were not ordinary. First of all, it was right before Christmas and we were in town to visit as many Christmas markets as reasonably possible (not that Christmas markets and snow globes are necessarily associated with one another...). And...the original snow globe manufacturer is still in business and open for visitors. That last piece changed everything.

The origin story, with a Mariazell snow globe in the lower left.

I'm not sure if the invention of the snow globe is a case of "necessity is the mother of invention" or a "the road to hell is paved with good intentions" story. Maybe it's neither. Maybe it's not worth that much mental energy. But here's the story.

In the year 1900, Erwin Perzy was working on a new invention, a surgical lamp that would offer a brighter light source than light bulbs available at that time. His idea was to adapt a cobbler's ball, a glass globe filled with water used to magnify the light of a candle, for use in surgical applications. His process involved adding flakes of different materials to the water to see if the reflectance of the materials made the light brighter. One of the materials he added was ground rice (this makes no sense but that's the story...) which when saturated in the water fell to the bottom of the globe in an effect resembling snow. 

Now, maybe in another universe or dimension or whatever, Perzy would have just moved on and tried some other material in the globe and continued his quest to make a better lamp for surgeries. But in a complete truth-is-stranger-than-fiction moment, he just happened to have a model of the Mariazell Basilica (Mariazell is a town in Austria a couple of hours' drive southwest of Vienna) that he had recently made for a friend handy and in a moment of inspiration put the model inside the globe and shook it to see what it looked like. 

Eureka! Goodbye better surgical lamps, hello snow globes.

Perzy's business is still in Vienna today, a couple of kilometers from the city center and easily accessible on the super awesome and super available public transportation system. It's called (inventively enough) The Original Viennese Snowglobe Manufacturer (and that's not my translation from German; it really is called that!). Their factory is fronted by a retail store (I mean...why not?) and a small, two-room museum that describes the origin story of the whole enterprise. They also offer factory tours but I guess not in late December. The woman working at the store said no more tours until 2023 when we were there.

The museum describes the creation of the first snow globe that I relayed above as well as some of the pieces and parts of the snow globes (OK so basically just the globe and the snow) and a description of how molds are made for standard and custom snow globe inserts or scenes. It sounds like they will custom make any snow globe on request. They had globes with the golden arches of McDonalds and a slice of Schertorte with the Hotel Sacher logo on the base of the globe.

One other claim that the museum makes is that the snow globes they produce have longer lasting snow than any other manufacturer in the world. Seem farfetched? I'm not sure it is. Again, not that I'm any sort of snow globe expert but I believe it. Despite my distancing myself from any sort of special knowledge about snow globes, I have shaken enough in my time to know that I've been regularly disappointed with the staying power of the snowfall. But not here. These things actually do shake better and last longer.

Not sure the snow globe earrings were such a great idea. These were NOT for sale at the store.

That's all I really have to say about this whole experience. It was a great add-on to our Christmas market quest (the factory had a booth at pretty much every market we visited in Vienna) and was such a quick and fun diversion. We probably would have skipped this in any other month except December but as soon as we found out about the factory still being in place we added it to the agenda and didn't look back. 

Who knew you could learn this stuff on vacation in Europe? And yes, we did bring some home. Three, in fact. You should too, if you visit. Especially just before Christmas.

At the Christmas Market at Schönbrunn Palace.

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How We Did It

The Original Viennese Snowglobe Manufacturer store is open Monday through Thursday 9 a.m. to 3 p.m. The museum is in the back of the store in two rooms, one on each side of the store's cashier desk. There is no cost to visit the museum; it's literally just two rooms tacked onto the store.

We did intend to take a tour of the factory, figuring they ran those daily whenever they were open. Apparently, they do not and we didn't get any clarification about the schedule since it was clear we weren't going to get one in the week we were in town.

If you are staying in the center of Vienna, you can take the number 42 tram from the Schottentor U all the way to the end of the tram line. The store is located one very short block west and two very short blocks south of the tram stop. 

If you think you might buy any snow globes (and you can honestly spend a ton of money here if you are not careful), you should probably think about investing a Vienna City Card. It's a card that allows access to all forms of public transportation for 24, 48 or 72 hours in addition to granting discounts on admission to attractions and restaurants in the city. The card gets you a 20% discount on your snow globe purchase. 

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