Top Mountain Crosspoint Museum Burns Down - Over 200 historic motorcycles lost

OVERNIGHT in Austria, the Top Mountain Crosspoint motorcycle museum was engulfed in flames, with over 200 classic motorcycles thought to be lost amongst the destruction.

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The museum sits at the base of the Timmelsjoch mountain pass road (on the Passo Del Rombo) in Austria, and sits as the EU’s highest altitude museum at 2175m. The road also connects South Tyrol and North Tyrol in Italy. The museum held one of the most extensive and valuable motorcycle collections in Austria and Europe, and was home to around 230 classic motorcycles - including classic models from Brough Superior, Vincent, Matchless, Sunbeam, Zündapp, and more, totalling around 100 manufacturers.

It was even associated with motorcycling royalty, as Giacomo ‘Ago’ Agostini was the godfather of the museum, plus it was home to other exhibitions of classic cars - we found an Aston Martin DB5 in one photo, a Ski history exhibit and a much-loved restaurant.

Top Mountain Crosspoint Museum lost to fire

Despite swift intervention from local fire brigades, it is feared that most (if not all) motorcycles have perished in the fire - the museum held all of the motorcycles in a 3000 square-meter exhibition area. Alban Scheiber, who co-owns the museum with his twin brother Attila, was once quoted in a Telegraph article:

“My brother and I have always loved old motorcycles. When our collection had grown to around 20 or 30 we thought about creating our own museum. This is our way of making this dream come true"

“It’s also very appropriate considering how many passionate motorcyclists come here to ride along the Timmelsjoch High Alpine Road.”

The fire erupted at around 4am local time, and it’s a truly great shame for such a beautiful museum with its contents to be lost in fire. It has yet to be reported what started the blaze, but looking at videos of the fire, it appears to have been a substantial one.

Footage of the Top Crosspoint Museum Fire