Witch Museum Switzerland
The Swiss Witch Museum in Liebegg Castle in Gränichen AG is a private museum in which the witch trials in Switzerland and Europe and their effects on the present day are shown. The museum sees its main task in collecting, preserving, conveying and researching objects of witchcraft, botany, anthropology , geology, popular superstition and much more. The director of the museum is Wicca Meier-Spring.
history
The witch museum was founded in 2009. In 2010 the Witch Museum was included in VAMUS (Association of Aargau Museums and Collections) and in the official museum guide. The witch museum was located in Auenstein for the first nine years . In 2016, an extension was added to the museum. It has been located at Liebegg Castle in Gränichen since 2018. After the permanent exhibition has been set up in the new rooms, there will also be special exhibitions again from 2020. The exhibits, which are spread over around 200 square meters in the museum, are private collectibles or loans from museums.
The Witches Museum Switzerland is the first and only museum of its kind in German-speaking countries. It informs not only about the past history of witches, but also about the witches of modern times. The museum searches archives and writings for directories of all persons who were executed as witches in Switzerland in order to record them by name and date. Many visitors come to the witch museum from all over the world in search of ancestors. The museum is internationally networked with other museums about witches, such as the Salem Witch Museum in Massachusetts or the Museum Of Witchcraft in Cornwall , England .
Sponsors of the private museum include Swisslos Canton Aargau and Migros Culture Percentage .
collection
The collection presents the witch trials in Switzerland and Europe and deals with the effects on the present day. The exhibition gives visitors an insight into the history of Swiss folk beliefs and superstitions , tells legends and shows customs of Swiss ancestors. In addition to the countless exhibits, the results of research on the trial files that still exist in the archives of Switzerland are presented. The museum's exhibition also deals with fortune telling , including reading the subjects of Tatro, astrology, mirror viewing, runes , ogham and tea leaves or coffee grounds .
Objects from several centuries of cultural history are exhibited in the witch museum. These include tarot cards and medicinal herbs, witch plants, wands made of different woods, corn masks and Roman escape tablets made of lead, amulets and talismans . The ghost haunt, palmistry and astrology in connection with witches are also presented and an attempt is made to bring the visitors closer. Not only witches from earlier times play a role in this museum, modern witches from today are also presented.
magazine
The magazine Mandragora the Witch Museum is published four times a year. The magazine deals with information about the museum, myths , customs around the topic and reports on museums all over the world, archaeological finds, natural philosophy and popular beliefs.
Witches Museum Association
To promote and support the museum in 2008 was the development association Witch Museum Switzerland founded. The witch museum is a private museum without regular donations or constant funding, so the museum is dependent on patron members and sponsors.
See also
Web links
Individual evidence
- ↑ Christian fundamentalists pray against witch museum , Aargauer Zeitung, March 20, 2018
- ↑ Liebegg Castle becomes the Hexenmusem , SRF, accessed on January 18, 2019
- ↑ Abracadabra and hocus-pocus? New Witch Museum in Switzerland , Hessischer Rundfunk, April 30, 2018
Coordinates: 47 ° 20 '10.7 " N , 8 ° 7' 3.7" E ; CH1903: 651,324 / 243048