Cities & Culture

Palatinate Museum Heidelberg

The comprehensive collections at the Palatinate Museum in Heidelberg span a period of several millennia, featuring prehistoric finds, 20th-century artefacts and everything in between.

Based on the understanding that we only recognise the things that shaped the course of history after the fact, the Palatinate Museum has made it its mission to collect relics that can tell us the tales of the past. There is a real focus on Heidelberg and the surrounding area, but the collection also includes some relics of art and culture that don't have any direct regional ties. After all, we need to broaden our horizons in order to sharpen our focus on what is right under our noses.

Exhibits in areas covering paintings, graphic art, crafts, archaeology, urban history and the Electoral Palatinate range from prehistory and early history in the archaeology collection area to paintings, prints and drawings from the 20th century. Much of the exhibition space at the Palatinate Museum is dedicated to paintings and sculptures, including splendid portraits of the Electors from the 17th and 18th centuries that give us a clear idea of the former territorial power in the Electoral Palatinate. In comparison to these stately masterpieces, Lucas Cranach's painting of "The Fall" is so graceful and Tilman Riemenschneider's "Twelve Messenger Altar" is so masterfully carved. The gallery of paintings from the 19th and 20th centuries houses major works of Classical Modernism by the likes of Wilhelm Lehmbruck, Karl Schmidt-Rottluff and Max Beckmann. Opening times: Tuesday to Sunday: 10 am–6 pm

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