Buildings
The oldest museum buildings are almost 500 years old, while the youngest buildings are from the 20th century; together, these buildings give a complex picture of life in past times. The buildings give insight to historical building methods and to our ancestors’ ways of life. Here you can learn how wealthy farmers and tradesmen lived – as well as life for the poorest segments of society.
Living standards and living conditions were dictated by both rank in society, as well as the specific time period. This is can be seen in the museum’s older buildings.
The museum contains five different building groupings. These groupings are not abruptly divided, but rather their configuration flows, in keeping to the museum narrative. The center of the museum is the Hohenlohe Village (Hohenloher Dorf), with farmhouses from the 1550s, 1800 and 1900. Other buildings in the Hohenlohe Village include tradesmen homes, a schoolhouse and the museum restaurant (Roter Ochsen), which exudes the inviting ambiance of an 18th century tavern.
The “Technik” building grouping is located in front of the Hohenlohe Village. Here you can visit the train station and the oldest cooperative grain warehouse – both of which were built in the 19th century in Kupferzell.
Traveling beyond the Hohenlohe Village, in the direction of the museum’s second largest building grouping (Vintner’s Village), visitors pass by the “Steigengasthaus.” This was originally an inn on an important connecting road. The inn offered a place of rest to passing merchants, farm hands and their draft animals. There are many good stories tied to this once busy inn.
Homes and buildings of trade can be found in the Vintner’s Village (Weinbauerndorf). A house from Sachsenflur, which dates back to the 16th century, is of particular interest. The Sachsenflur house was designed to give visitors an up-close view of historical building techniques. The Wine Grower’s House from Verrenberg (which remains to this day an important wine-growing town) is open on Sundays as a historical Besenwirtschaft (tavern selling homegrown wine).
A 200-year-old sawmill from the Welzheim Forest and the farmstead “Mühle Laun” – built in 1687 in Weipertshofen – are located in the Mill Valley (Mühlental). Both mills are operated on special occasions and members of the “Mühlenteams” are on site to give explanations and demonstrate the historical mechanisms.
The most important building in the “Waldberge” (mountain forest) grouping is the farmstead “Käshof,” which was built in 1585. In the winter of 1944/45 events that were a matter of life and death took place in this farmstead.
These five building groupings are nestled between fields, orchards and gardens.
Sonder- und Dauerausstellungen
Neben der Präsentation der originalgetreu eingerichteten Gebäude werden auch Sonder- und Dauerausstellungen gezeigt, die vertiefende Einblicke in unterschiedliche Bereiche der regionalen Kulturgeschichte bieten.