Bärnau-Tachov Historical Park
| Data | |
|---|---|
| place | Bärnau |
| Art |
Open-air archaeological museum
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| opening | 2011 |
| operator |
Via Carolina - Goldene Straße eV
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| Website | |
The Bärnau-Tachov History Park is an archaeological open-air museum in Bärnau in the eastern Tirschenreuth district and in Tachov in the Pilsen region . It depicts everyday life in the Middle Ages in Bavaria Slavica from the 8th / 9th to the 14th century .
History of origin
In the spring of 2010, construction work began on the cross-border Bärnau-Tachov Historical Park, which opened in August 2011 in the first phase of expansion. The museum concept provides three time windows: an early medieval village from the 8th / 9th centuries. Century, Motte (tower hill castle) and stave church from the 11th century and a settlement from the High Middle Ages , divided into rural homesteads and townhouses from the 12th / 13th centuries . In 2018, over 30 authentically reconstructed buildings can be visited on an area of almost 11 hectares, making the complex the largest medieval archaeological open-air museum in southern Germany. By using authentic materials and techniques, the structures are stable, weatherproof and usable. The facility is being built as part of experimental archeology in close cooperation with a scientific advisory board and under the supervision of an archaeologist on site. The scientific advisory board meets twice a year and is headed by the former director of the state office for non-state museums in Bavaria . In the Bärnau-Tachov History Park, everyday life in the Middle Ages can be experienced realistically with the help of authentic, original-size reconstructions and actors in medieval clothing. The history park is sponsored by the non-profit association Via Carolina - Goldene Straße eV The long-term use of the buildings by actors and as part of the museum operation enables valuable insights for archaeological research. So z. B. Theories on heating and smoke management are checked on site and signs of wear and the lifespan of the building are documented.
ArchaeoCentrum Bavaria-Bohemia
In addition to the historical park, the ArchaeoCentrum Bayern-Böhmen was inaugurated at the end of 2018 . In addition to the construction site of a travel station of Emperor Charles IV from the late Middle Ages in the 14th century, it also includes the Archaeo workshop housed in a new building. The royal court will complement the wooden buildings of the historical park didactically with stone architecture, while the Archaeowerkstatt makes it possible to scientifically accompany the construction site operated with authentic methods in the sense of experimental archeology . The ArchaeoCentrum offers modern laboratory and work rooms that are used by research projects but also for university teaching at the Otto Friedrich University in Bamberg , the Charles University in Prague and the University of West Bohemia in Pilsen . The ArchaeoCentrum is funded separately by the EU.
The site
The museum area has been largely renatured , so that in the current state there is a near-natural pond with fish species such as fish that have been proven in medieval excavations. B. roach , rudd , crucian carp , wild carp and perch can be found and the Waldnaab flows again in its natural state. In the meantime, the renaturation has been so successful that the Waldnaab has the European noble crayfish on the red list again . Also beaver , black stork and red kites are often sift in the area. The area was only planted with shrubs and trees that have been proven in West Slavic settlements. The planting of old types of fruit such as B. apple quince , sloe , creeper and medlar also serves to maintain biodiversity. The house gardens display typical herbs and vegetables, such as the cucumber , which was brought to Europe by the Slavs.
Early medieval settlement
The early medieval settlement consists of eleven buildings, some with gardens, several craft workshops and a Slavic cult site for Svantovit , a garden with coloring plants, a sheep pasture, hay meadows and a field with medieval crops and an enclosure with woolly pigs .
The first house on the tour is a Slavic wicker wall house , which was reconstructed after a find in Groß Raden and built with a plank wicker wall technology. With the high interior space, which is covered with a shingle roof, the building has a good smoke outlet and can be built relatively quickly and gently. In addition, a pit house can be seen, which has been proven by excavations in Nabburg for the Upper Palatinate region. Because it is sunk into the ground, it offers protection from harsh weather. Two other pit houses, which were built according to the same models, offer a completely different picture due to their different wall and roof constructions. In addition, a Slavic post house was built that was used as a purely residential building. Evidence for this type of building, which is protected from the weather by plastered walls with several layers of clay, was excavated in Lohnsitz near the town of Tirschenreuth . There are also two simple post houses with wicker walls and thatched roofs , these formed the majority of the early medieval buildings. Finally, the first solid medieval building was completed: the Slavic log house . This construction method could be proven during excavations in Dietstätt. In the center of the village is a Slavic longhouse modeled on the Prince's Hall of Starigard / Oldenburg , which is the largest reconstruction of a Slavic building in Europe and was also used as a residential building, meeting place and representation room. There is also a forge, a pottery oven and a clay oven on the edge of the settlement and animal shelters with Bohemian forest sheep and woolly pigs and the associated pasture.
The reconstruction of the village does not aim to reproduce any archaeological findings, but rather to represent an ideal image that shows all of the construction forms common in the West Slavic settlement area during this period.
Early high medieval settlement
The museum area, which deals with the early High Middle Ages , consists of three buildings and a fish smoker. One of these buildings is the Motte with a height of 15 m, which is also the landmark of the historical park. The wooden tower with a height of 10 m is a very typical form of defense systems for the region in the 11th century . The moth hill near the church of St. Elisabeth in Bärnau, as well as the images of the construction of such a moth on the Bayeux tapestry and the excavations of the moth at Abinger Castle in Surrey, served as a model for the world's only reconstruction of this oldest building type . The tower is protected by its hilltop location as well as by a strong palisade and a moat . However, the tower was not a residential building. The mighty wooden house in the outer bailey, which was the residence of a ministerial stationed here, was used for this purpose. More than 40 such moths were created in the course of the German East Settlement in the northern Upper Palatinate .
Next to this building is a stave church from the 11th century, which is a reconstruction of an excavated church from Kleinlangheim in the Kitzingen district. These churches served the Slavic mission . The model for the remarkable roof structure is a fleeting sketch that a monk left on the edge of his prayer book.
High medieval settlement
The high medieval area of the historical park is divided into urban and rural life. There are nine buildings and three gardens to visit. The largest building in the city area is a two-story hostel , where the structural transition to the half-timbered house can already be seen . The hostel is a symbol of travel and traffic and the increasing mobility across borders on the Golden Road . The model of this building was in Esslingen , its construction date was dendrochronologically determined to 1261. In contrast to the older buildings, it is an early half-timbered construction on a stone foundation. Inside there is now a smoke-free room with a tiled stove. A deep storage cellar has been created behind the hostel. The five adjoining wooden townhouses are grouped around a well and have been assigned to individual trades, including blacksmith, baker and trader. They have time-typical construction features such as B. basic sleepers, frame construction , early tiled stoves , shops and two-story construction. The role models come from cities such as Riga , Basel , Regensburg and Forchheim .
The tour of the museum grounds ends at the rural house, which was reconstructed based on a model from Tirschenreuth , but apart from the interior, it can hardly be distinguished from the early medieval buildings. The garden is equipped as a medicinal or herb garden in which medieval plants can be found. Next to the farmhouse there is a pit house , which has not been used as a house since the High Middle Ages, but only as a deep storage room.
Construction site travel station
In addition to the wooden structures, a stone building complex will be built as an experimental construction site with medieval techniques on the site of the history park. The construction plan provides for the construction of a typical travel station and refers to the Goldene Straße, the medieval long-distance connection from Nuremberg to Prague. The construction site began in 2018 and is expected to take around 20 years to complete.
literature
Stefan Wolters: The Bärnau-Tachov History Park - From the earth into life. About reconstructing and trying out archaeological findings . In: Contributions to archeology in the Upper Palatinate and in Regensburg , Volume 1, Neustadt / Aisch 2013, pp. 153–162; ISSN 1617-4461
Stefan Wolters: The Bärnau-Tachov History Park - A museum at the limit: Scientific standards and economic reality . In: Fines Transire year 25, 2016, Archaeological Working Group East Bavaria / West and South Bohemia / Upper Austria, 25th meeting June 17-20, 2015 in Bärnau , Rahden / Westphalia 2016, pp. 127–137. ISBN 978-3-89646-220-6
Stefan Wolters: The Bärnau-Tachov Historical Park. A cross-border museum project in the Upper Palatinate . In: Hauke Kenzler, Hans Losert (ed.): The reconstruction of medieval worlds. A colloquium on the 60th birthday of Ingolf Ericsson , Bamberg Colloquia on the Archeology of the Middle Ages and Modern Times 2, Pressath 2015, pp. 17–24. ISBN 978-3-939247-64-7
Web links
photos
Moth behind the landscaped pond
Early medieval village with a moth
Street of the early medieval settlement
Construction of the Slavic mine house
Medieval fence weaving
Clay oven
Coordinates: 49 ° 48 ′ 27.2 " N , 12 ° 25 ′ 54.5" E