Museum in the city palace
Middle Ages, Baroque period, 19th century and much more
The full-time museum in the Stadtpalais Kirchheimbolanden displays selected objects from prehistory to the 20th century on around 1,500 square meters.
The prehistory and early history department (ground floor room 2) presents finds from the Stone Age (blades, hand axes, stone axes, arrowheads, clay vessels), Bronze Age (knives, ring jewelry, statuette of a boy) and Iron Age (knives, arm rings) from Kirchheimbolanden and the surrounding area (including Bischheim, Bolanden, Morschheim). The industrial area in the north of the town (Morschheimer Straße) proved to be a particularly rich find site with a pottery vessel from the Early Pottery Age (5th/4th millennium BC), a Late Bronze Age burial ground (approx. 1200 to 1050 BC) and traces of Iron Age settlement (approx. 800 to 250 BC). An outstanding individual piece is a Celtic axle nail from the Donnersberg. Also from the Celtic period (ca. 450 BC). A stone head figurine with three faces from Albisheim can be attributed to this period. A remarkable find from the Kirchheimbolander Gewerbegiebt Nord, a Roman burial site with glass urn, glass bottles and burial lamp (approx. 80 to 120 AD) is on display in the gateway to the museum building.
This broad archaeological spectrum identifies Kirchheimbolanden and the surrounding area as a region of early settlement since the Stone Age. The area was bordered by forest towards the Donnersberg and arable open land towards the Rhine. These are natural conditions that have not only enabled prehistoric settlement since the Early Neolithic Linear Pottery (5th/4th millennium BC), but also provided a decisive basis for settlement in the Early Middle Ages.
Opening hours
The museum is open Tuesdays to Sundays from 2 p.m. to 5 p.m.
Admission is free. The museum is happy to organize guided tours and events with school classes.
Wedding ceremonies can also be held in the “Musiksälchen” by the registry office of the Kirchheimbolanden municipality (Tel. 06352/4004-200 or 202).
Middle Ages
The section on the Middle Ages (room EG 3) first introduces visitors to two key historical events in the history of Kirchheimbolanden: the first documented mention in 774 with a donation of farmsteads and vineyards in Kirchheim to Lorsch Abbey and the granting of the town charter by Emperor Charles IV to Count Henry II of Sponheim in 1368. An “information table” in the middle of the room illustrates how the expansion of the town within the fortification ring then set the course for the further development of the town.
However, the “pillars of medieval power” are not only the towns, but also the monasteries and castles. Both factors of power are therefore represented by architectural remains of the Rothenkirchen monastery (in the Kirchheimbolanden district) and a large model of Neu-Bolanden Castle (in the neighboring district). Both were large buildings. A capital of an eight-part bundle pillar at Rothenkirchen in particular is evidence of this. And the structural size of Neu-Bolanden (length: approx. 110 m, width 90 m), the seat of the Lords of Bolanden, who played an important role as imperial ministers on the Upper and Middle Rhine in the Hohenstaufen period, underlines their political power far beyond the Northern Palatinate.
Baroque period
The Boland heirs – also in Kirchheimbolanden – were then the Counts of Sponheim and, as their heirs in 1393, the Counts of Nassau, whose branch line Nassau-Weilburg was elevated to the status of princes in 1737. They made Kirchheimbolanden the residence of their scattered territory on the middle Lahn, the Donnersberg and the upper Saar. This residential phase of the town, which was forcibly ended by French revolutionary troops in 1792, is presented in the “Musiksälchen” and Nassau-Weilburg-Zimmer (rooms on the first and second floors).
The two princely couples Carl August (reigned 1719-53) and Auguste Fredericke as well as Carl Christian (reigned 1753-88) and Caroline are presented. In addition, the military and hunting are two areas of life that characterize the understanding of baroque rulers. Exhibits include the tin plate of a Nassau-Weilburg grenadier’s cap and a “forestry, woodland and hunting regulation” from 1749, as well as a princely hunting rifle with a “deerstalker”.
Further insights into the Nassau period are provided by a family portrait of Princess Caroline and her children, commemorative medals and coins (including a “Schüsselpfennig” from the Kirchheimboland mint [Standort 10]).
19th century
In the 19th century, Kirchheimbolanden was a Palatinate-Bavarian country town. This phase takes up a lot of space on the upper floor of the museum (rooms OG 7-11). The focus is on politics (the 1848/49 revolution and its “pre-March” prehistory) and society/economy/science (mainly in the imperial era). The revolutionary events of 1848/49 (rooms OG 7-9) were followed by the Hambach Festival of 1832 (room OG 8) and the territorial new beginning with Kirchheimbolanden becoming part of the Kingdom of Bavaria from 1816 (room OG 7).
Socially and economically, the 19th century was a complex phase of “modernization”, especially during the imperial era (1871 to 1918). In Kirchheimbolanden, this also affected the castle garden, which was redesigned as a bourgeois garden.
The client was Heinrich von Brunck, who also built his villa in the upper part of the area, although it no longer exists. However, photos and a tiled wall have been preserved (room on the 11th floor).
Brunck also left his mark in other places in Kirchheimbolanden, for example with the creation of the Schiller Grove. In terms of economic history, the town entered the age of industrialization. In future, this subject area will be examined in more detail in temporary exhibitions in the (rooms on the upper floor 4-5a).
The aim is also to “illustrate” the society of Kirchheimboland during the imperial period with its formative players.
However, a world-class scientist is also associated with Kirchheimbolanden during this phase: Georg von Neumayer (1826-1909), founder of the German Naval Observatory (now the Federal Maritime and Hydrographic Agency in Hamburg) and the doyen of German Antarctic research.
The museum in the Stadtpalais provides an extremely rich insight into history and should therefore definitely be included in the Kirchheimboland city tour(s). Because there is much more to discover than the exhibits presented here.
