Permanent exhibitions | Osterzgebirgsmuseum Schloss Lauenstein

Coat of Arms Hall: This splendid hall with its unique, stucco ceiling from 1609 hosts regularly resound concerts, weddings are celebrated and there are interesting presentations held. It reminds the artistry of the lords of Bünau, who were able to expand the castle at that time.

The castle chapel: Religion played an important role in the life of the once-established lords of the castle. The chapel bears witness to this. It was built around 1500 in the Gothic style and rebuilt in the 19th century. Valuable consoles made of sandstone, which were created around 1600 and adorned the great trumpet hall at the time of its creation, can be admired here.

The Birds Hall: The Vogelsaal impresses with its valuable paintings from the beginning of the 17th century. The double-armed star vault is painted with renaissance ornamentation and animal representations. On the window reveals, restorers were able to remove fragments of wall painting.

It has been over 800 years since the first castle complex was built. Many building projects followed in the centuries that followed. You can discover traces from ancient times during a tour of the castle. You can find out about the history of the listed building in an exciting animated film, with images and text as well as a model.

The permanent exhibition on the history of the building was co-financed by tax revenue based on the budget approved by the Saxon state parliament.

800 years in 8 minutes

In a vivid animated film you will experience the most important construction phases of Lauenstein Castle and Palace in images and sound.

House history guide

During a tour of the castle, you will discover information boards in various rooms that tell you about the special features of the building. For example, you can find out where the counts' quiet place was, what instruments angels played with or how the heating was done.

The castle to feel

A tactile model of the entire palace complex awaits you at the entrance to the museum. For the visually impaired, the important components are explained in Braille.

 

The base of the economic of city, whose center was a steeply sloping market square with houses, protected by a three-portal wall, was the trade as well as the agriculture mostly used in the secondary trade and the mining industry beginning around 1450.

The award of the city rights takes place step by step from 1374 onwards, Lauenstein has the right to hold a weekly market. From 1489 the citizens are allowed to vote for a council and mayor. In 1494, Lauenstein is granted full municipal rights by the lords.

In particular, you will find interesting information about the Saxon postal milestones, which Augustus the Strong (1670-1733) let set up, but also about the surveying of Saxon roads, which took place at that time with measuring carriages and carts.

In the eighteenth century, the first comprehensive European traffic guidance system was built in the electorate of Saxony, following Roman prelims on the former regional transport routes - the Saxon postal milestones. Adam Friedrich Zürner (1679-1742), declared distances information as hours (1 hour = 4.531 km), it was the basis for the survey of the country. The magnificent columns, which can be found in many places in Saxony, still remind us of the elaborate project that August the Strong took.

The biography of George Bährs contains many secrets, and we do not know his appearance, because a portrait of the master builder is not handed down. As the son of a carpenter, he was born in Fürstenwalde on March 15, 1666 and grew up in Lauenstein, probably visiting the boys' school here and learning the carpenter's craft. In 1693 Bähr moves to Dresden and works in the capital city as a carpenter. He calls himself an artist and a mechanic, designs organ props as well as palaces and palaces. At the age of 39, the Dresden city fathers appointed Bähr in 1705 as a council chamberlain.

The first construction was the parish church of Loschwitz near Dresden, which was completed in 1708. Numerous churches followed after such as the orphanage church in Dresden, the village church of the Holy Trinity in Schmiedeberg and the church in Beitzsch (Biecz in Poland). As a builder or consultant, George Bähr was involved in the construction and conversion of the churches in Königstein, Kesselsdorf, Hohenstein and Schmannewitz in the following years. According to his specifications, various residential buildings were also being built in Dresden.

Bähr's main activity was the world-famous Womens Church in Dresden. Boldly and masterfully erected in the 18th century - it was destroyed in 1945, rebuilt from 1991 and completed in October 2005.

The railway line was then 36.1 km long and had to climb an elevation of 470 m from the start to the end. The first timetable provided for four daily pairs of trains, the journey time on the total route was about 150 minutes.

From 1935 to 1938 the conversion to normal track width made. The section Heidenau-Lauenstein was completely redesigned, on the remaining part to Altenberg only the curve radius was enlarged. Due to the new construction the track length was shorten about three kilometers. Today, the route is an important transport connection for professional commuters, students, tourists and winter sportsmen.

The displays in the exhibition tell the story of the interesting railway line. If the model of the narrow track steam lokomotive (a Saxon VI K) travels over the rails of Geising to Altenberg, not only children's get excited.

For the Lords of Lauenstein, hunting has always played an important role. As early as in the Middle Ages, hunting became more and more the sole privilege of the nobles. The Counts of Bünau had the right of hunting of small and big game. Numerous trophies, animal preparations and hunting weapons can be seen in the permanent exhibition.

In Lauenstein, the bite-hunting has probably a longer tradition. So tells the famous Lauensteiner Tell a spectacular kidnapping:

The castle owner of Lauenstein died on a journey around 1651. His wife, Agnes Katharina von Bünau, who was now the owner of Lauenstein, gave birth to a boy whom she loved very much three months after the death of the lord of the castel. When the boy was two years old, the mother and the child stayed on a beautiful spring day on a hill near the castle. The boy was sleeping on the soft lawn. The mother moved away to pick flowers. Suddenly a huge bird of prey flew out of the forest, which grabed the sleeping child with its talons and rose with him into the air. Slowly he carried the heavy load to the nearby rock.

Fortunately the falconer at the castle had witnessed. He then sent his bravest falcons to rescue the child. He pressed the mighty bird of prey so much that this one had to let go of the child. Since the eagle could not fly very high due to the the considerable load, the child fell onto the meadow undisturbed and could be handed over to his mother.

Visitors can learn more of what the forrest what it is today by visiting the rooms of exhibition. They are taken into the once virgin jungle of the eastern Ore Mountains, hear as before in the dense forests of the region the wolves howled and the brown bears muttered. The visitors can also test whether they can correctly recognize the voices of some wild animals.

In addition, you will see how mankind has changed the nature of the eastern Ore Mountains over the centuries. In the Middle Ages people began to clear the forest for the construction of castles and settlements, because Saxony and Bohemia had silver and tin found, therefore the borders had to be secured. This took place between 1200 and 1400. Mining was followed by two further clear cutting trees periods, which endangered the forest in the end. Only in the 18th century did a regulated forestry develop in the Eastern Ore Moutains. Today, sustainable forestry is a key element in securing the main functions of our forest for the future.

Heribert Fischer-Geising (1896-1984) was a painter and artist, who repeatedly expressed his love for the landscape of eastern Ore Mountains in his numerous works, but also later on to the Black Forest and Tessin. He was particularly fond of Geising and its surroundings. Since his childhood, Heribert Fischer-Geising has felt a deep attachment to this place in the Eastern Ore Mountains. So he settled down in 1919, after returning from the First World War, traumatized and seriously wounded. He then worked as a freelance artist and teacher.

The approximately 50 works on display come from the collection of Museum of Eastern Ore Mountains Schloss Lauenstein and Heribert Fischer-Geising Foundation, which is affiliated to the museum. This permanent exhibition is intended to remind us of the representatives of the New Objectivity, who are still too little noticed today. In addition, the Heribert Fischer-Geising Foundation is keen to make the work of the artist accessible, at least in parts, to the public.

Until the middle of the 19th century, court was held at Lauenstein castel. Numerous files from the 17th and 18th centuries allow us to take a look at the time of the Counts of Bünau, which had the privilege of the low and high jurisdiction, which meant that they were allowed to judge about money fine, and even sentence people to death.

A dark dungeon from the Middle Ages on the grounds of the castle also bear witness to the handling of guilty ones so as the detention cells and the guard room of the 19th century in the cellars in the east wing of the castle.

To the south side of the castle is the terraced garden. Prairies and herbs thrive on the beds. Let yourself be surprised by the variety of plants, enjoy the fragrance of the herbs and let yourself and be enchanted by the sight of the beautiful flowers.

The minerals on display are a small part of Emmerich Pavlik's generous donation to the Eastern Ore Mountains Museum at Lauenstein Castle. The Frohburger spent his life passionately searching for these treasures of the earth. Quartz always remained the central selection criterion for his collection. He paid particular attention to pieces that come from the Ore Mountains. Quartz occurs in our nature in the most magnificent color varieties and various compounds. The purest form of quartz is rock crystal. The fascinating colors make quartz, such as amethyst, popular gemstones. But modern industry is also unimaginable without quartz as a raw material. We need it as a quartz oscillator in watches and radio technology, for glass production or use it in the semiconductor industry.

“Music drives away the devil and makes people happy,” writes Martin Luther.

In this part of the permanent exhibition, our visitors learn exciting things about the history of music in the Eastern Ore Mountains, which has long shaped the lives of the people here. You are invited to take part in a historical music lesson with Cantor K. and to get to know the famous Eastern Ore Mountains composers Johann Kuhnau (1660 - 1722), Johann Schelle (1648 - 1701) and Nino Neidhardt (1889-1950) better. Few people know that both predecessors of the famous Leipzig St. Thomas cantor Johann Sebastian Bach – Johann Schelle and Johann Kuhnau – came from the Eastern Ore Mountains. At our listening station, visitors can embark on a musical journey through time.

Puppetry has a long-standing tradition in the Eastern Ore Mountains. Paul Hölzig (1911-1989), one of the best puppeteers in the GDR in the post-war period, had a permanent base at the Bärenfels inn. With his Punch and Judy, he thrilled young and old all over Germany.

Ruth and Hans-Joachim Hellwig, who knew Hölzig personally, also traveled all over Germany with their puppet shows. They were involved in the Punch and Judy show and often performed in Bärenfels. Hans-Joachim Hellwig, together with the Bärenfels innkeeper Jan Kempe and the Association for Cultural History Bärenfels e.V., founded the Bärenfels Puppet Theater Festival, which has been sending regional and international puppet theaters as well as an enthusiastic audience to the Eastern Ore Mountains every year since 2005.

Visitors can marvel at numerous handmade wooden puppets and learn the interesting story behind the puppetry tradition.

Colorful flowering mountain meadows are defining elements of the Eastern Ore Mountains nature. Its creation is part of an almost thousand-year-old landscape history, the creative focus of which was and still is people and their (agricultural) economic activities. In addition to this historical development, there are all sorts of interesting facts to learn, hear and see about the colorful hustle and bustle of a meadow. We invite you to this journey through time and a very special excursion into the microcosm of a flowering mountain meadow buzzing with insects. This exhibition was developed by the Grüne Liga Osterzgebirge e. V., a nature conservation association that deals intensively with the meadows of the Eastern Ore Mountains.