Top 10 Museums in Franconia, Bavaria

Sie wollten schon immer wissen, was „Helau“ und „Alaaf“ eigentlich bedeuten? Was es mit der Bütt auf sich hat? Oder warum sich alles im Karneval um die Elf dreht? Dann sind Sie im Deutschen Fastnachtmuseum genau richtig. Denn hier können Sie allen Fragen rund um Fasching, Fastnacht und Karneval spielerisch auf den Grund gehen. Zahlreiche Mitmach-Stationen und weitläufige Ausstellungsräume versprechen einen kurzweiligen Museumsbesuch. Auch Kinder kommen nicht zu kurz – sie können sich entweder selbst verkleiden oder mit einem Quiz das Museum kennenlernen. Das Museum ist daher ein ideales Ausflugsziel für Familien. In einem „virtuellen Narrentheater“, einer Multi-Media-Show, erzählen Figuren aus verschiedenen Karnevals- und Fastnachtsregionen ihre Geschichte. Das Fastnachtmuseum ist nicht nur das einzige seiner Art, es ist, nachdem es im November 2013 eröffnet wurde, auch eines der modernsten in ganz Deutschland.

This castle, the city's most prominent symbol since the 12th century, includes a museum, restaurant and formal gardens.

The Germanisches Nationalmuseum is the largest museum of cultural history in the German-speaking region. Setting nation-wide standards through its scientific and scholarly achievements, it carries the reputation of a dependable reference point in the museum landscape. The museum investigates art and culture in German-speaking areas in an internationally integrated and innovative way, offering educational experiences in dialogue form. Insights and results are situated within their historical contexts. The exhibition captivates visitors by the aura and presence of the original, awakening curiosity in art and culture through the narrative around it.

Nuremberg has been a city of toys since the Middle Ages. With an abundance of extraordinary exhibits from antiquity to the present, Nuremberg's world famous Toy Museum presents the "world in miniature" in 1,400 square meters of space, featuring dolls, shops, tin figures and tin toys, wooden toys and a large model train set (Track S), as well as more recent toys, such as Lego, Barbie, Playmobil, and Matchbox. The imaginatively designed children's area in the attic is staffed with trained educational personnel. Summer attractions include a large outdoor playground and a museum cafe in the secluded inner courtyard. There are audio guides tailored for adults and children to escort you through the museum, and also a droll photographic treasure hunt.

Museum under the open sky A walk around the Fränkisches Freilandmuseum is like travelling back in time through the past 700 years of rural life in Franconia. More than one hundred buildings, most of them furnished with authentic furniture from their period – farmsteads, craftsmen’s cottages, shepherd’s hut, barns, stables, bakeries, drying houses for fruit and flax, a school, a municipal building and a manor house – make for an amazing journey of discovery, showing how Franconian people lived, worked and built their homes in times gone by. Walk from village to village The buildings are arranged in sevengroups, representing different regions and themes. So, walking around the museum site feels a bit like walking from village to village, as people would have done in the past. Of particular interest are the “Middle Ages” group and the “Town” group, located in Bad Windsheim’s old town, with the Spitalkirche (hospital church), the “Museum Kirche in Franken”.

The “Fränkische Krone” (Franconian Crown) is one of the largest medieval castle buildings in Germany. Martin Luther lived within its walls in 1530. Today, internationally significant art collections are housed there.