The Palatinate museum of Heidelberg, offers insights of regional history. With its large collection of paintings, graphics and sculptures (15th– 20thcentury), handcraft, archaeology, town history and Electoral Palatinate, the Heidelberg Palatinate museum offers a unique image of the ancient Electoral Palatinate and its capital, Heidelberg.
The origin of the museum is based on the initiative of the French immigrant, Charles de Graimberg. In which, he had started to dedicate it towards the history of the Heidelberg castle and the Palatine royal house since 1810. Graimberg's constantly growing collection contained paintings, graphic sheets, certificates, coins, medals, weapons and porcelain from the manufacturer in Frankenthal as well as sculptures and prefabricated parts.
Even the famous "Zwölfbotenaltar "of Tilman Riemenschneider had been acquired by Graimberg. In 1879, the city of Heidelberg bought the the Graimberg collection and brought it from the castle to the Hauptstraße. In 1908, the museum was opened in the palace (built in 1712) of Philipp Morass, a professor of the law faculty, as the "civic art and antiquities collection". There had been major expansions in regards to the territorial and historical subjects during the second part of the 19thcentury due to the fact of many archaeological discoveries, primarily the remaining parts of the roman Neckar bridge in 1877. Archaeological digs in Heidelberg and environs, especially after the 2nd world war, led to a significant growth of the stock.
Noble donations from Heidelberg citizens, like the collections from the Posselt's, helped in the expansion of the museums assortments. The artwork of the romantic side of Heidelberg is another main subject of the exhibition, since the beginning of the 20thcentury. In 2002, the museum managed to purchase the silverware of “elector Elisabeth Augusta“. It is the only complete preserved silverware of the electoral palatine property of the 18th century. This acquirement is one of the most outstanding pieces in the last decades and is part of the permanent exhibition.
Since the reopening of the building in 1991, the Heidelberg art society is housed in the left wing. With thanks to the new complex being built, the old and the new museum were then connected. This allowed the museum to represent itself in a more modern way. Visitors have the option of a full tour, starting in the prehistory and in the dark ages, to the painting gallery of the 19th and 20th centuries.
Opening times
Tuesday to Sunday 10.00am – 06.00pm, closed on Mondays.
Closed on the 24. , 25. and 31.12. , 1.1. , Shrove Tuesday and the 1. May.
Address
Hauptstraße 97
69117 Heidelberg
www.museum-heidelberg.de
