Bath culture museum
 Museum forecourt with main entrance |
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| Data | |
|---|---|
| place | Andreas-Broicher-Platz 1 Zülpich |
| Art |
Special museum of cultural history
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| opening | August 2008 |
| operator | |
| management |
Iris Hofmann-Kastner
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| Website | |
| ISIL | DE-MUS-151613 |
The Römerthermen Zülpich - Museum of Bathing Culture , opened in August 2008, show a very well-preserved Roman thermal bath complex. The museum on the Mühlenberg in Zülpich , Euskirchen district , is a cooperation project between the Rhineland Regional Council (LVR) and the city of Zülpich.
history
The Roman thermal baths of Zülpich owe their extremely good condition above all to their immediate vicinity to the Church of St. Peter. For centuries the ruins remained hidden under the cemetery grounds and protected from harmful interference. It was not until 1929 that workers came across the remains of the ancient system while building a municipal sewer system. By 1936, the remains of the walls that were over 1.50 m high, the water basins and the heating system were uncovered by the elementary school teacher Paul Hubert Pesch from Zülpich in collaboration with the Rhenish Provincial Museum . Already at this time, visitors were able to view the so-called core building with a protective roof. On December 24th, 1944, an air raid by the Allied forces destroyed much of the city, including the medieval church and the old Propsteig building. Fortunately, the thermal baths remained undamaged, but were closed to the public for a few years. In 1978/79 new excavations were carried out by the Rheinisches Landesmuseum Bonn / Office for Ground Monument Preservation, in which previously unknown areas were explored and, among other things, the existence of a so-called "basilica thermarum" was proven. Since the maintenance conditions deteriorated rapidly over the next twenty years, the representatives of the Zülpicher Geschichtsverein, the North Rhine-Westphalia Foundation for Nature Conservation, Heritage and Cultural Preservation and Heinz Günter Horn from the Ministry for Urban Development, Culture and Sport of North Rhine-Westphalia made a joint decision for the new building of a thematically unique museum. The "Römerthermen Zülpich - Museum of Bathing Culture" opened on August 29, 2008 - over 6600 visitors visited the exhibition on the first weekend alone.
Thanks to the plans of the Zülpich architect Markus Ernst, the modern museum building now forms an organic unit with the old Propsteig building and the adjacent St. Peter's Church.
On April 1, 2009, the originally municipal museum became the responsibility of the Rhineland Regional Council.
Permanent exhibitions
Roman department
The main attraction of the museum are the remains of a Roman thermal bath from the middle of the 2nd century AD. During its almost two centuries of use, the bathing establishment was expanded and rebuilt several times until it was abandoned in the 4th century. Today an archaeological trail leads visitors around the thermal baths. All important parts of the thermal baths are explained at a total of 18 stations. Including the differently tempered rooms of the frigidarium , tepidarium and caldarium , the heating system with its prefurnia and hypocausts as well as the water supply and disposal. Furthermore, the exhibition shows that Roman thermal baths, in addition to their function for physical cleansing, were also important for social life and at the same time were places of ancient wellness. Doctors often practiced their craft in separate rooms. A sub-section shows how pronounced the Romans' love of bathing was in the country. Among other things, it houses the valuable inventory of a Roman grave from Enzen .
middle Ages
Using selected exhibits and illustrations, the exhibition shows that the bathroom was a place of social life even in the Middle Ages. Communal steam baths, individual baths in wooden tubs and cold casts were part of the repertoire of an urban bathing room. Body hygiene and relaxation were therefore considered to be fundamental components of bathing even in the Middle Ages. The barber also worked as a barber and healer. He offered haircuts, shaves and medical treatments as additional services.
Early modern times / baroque
With the extinction of public bathing facilities, daily personal hygiene shifted more and more into the private sphere. Many of the baroque palaces and princely seats had splendid bathing cabinets - some with functional water supply and drainage systems. The rural population was also able to recover from the daily stresses and strains in so-called farmer's baths , often part of a farm job. In the private sphere, washstands and lounge chairs are the harbingers of modern bathrooms.
Modern times
With the industrial revolution of the 19th century, hygiene became increasingly important. Workers' baths, public washing facilities and public shower baths offered the opportunity for physical cleaning at any time. In addition, bathing was increasingly valued as a leisure activity. The cities built large outdoor pools and swimming pools everywhere, and beach holidays by the sea became a longing destination for many. The beachwear and bathroom furnishings on display testify to the change in bathing habits and fashions over the past two hundred years. But extensive bathing fun requires ever larger amounts of water, especially the popular fun pools of our time.
Temporary exhibition
In addition to the permanent exhibition, the museum offers regularly changing special exhibitions on an area of 147 m 2 .
Museum offer
Lectures and readings are held regularly in the museum. Once a month, a public tour on selected topics is offered as well as the child-friendly tour “Students lead students”. General tours can be booked in advance.
Trained museum educators also offer workshops for children and adults as well as birthday parties for children.
The special offer of the "Römerthermen Zülpich - Museum of Bathing Culture" includes the rental of three event rooms:
- Seminar room (37 m²)
- Basilica (194 m²)
- Salentinsaal (74.5 m²)
literature
- Eckart Roloff and Karin Henke-Wendt: Immerse yourself in early wellness worlds. (Römerthermen Zülpich - Museum of Bathing Culture) In: Visit your doctor or pharmacist. A tour through Germany's museums for medicine and pharmacy. Volume 1, Northern Germany, S. Hirzel Verlag, Stuttgart 2015, pp. 166–168, ISBN 978-3-7776-2510-2 .
- Heinz Günter Horn : This is how the Romans bathed. Around the thermal baths of Zülpich . Verlag Liebe, Weilerswist 2008, ISBN 978-3-941037-06-9 .
- Harald Koschik : The new presentation of the Roman thermal baths in Zülpich-Tolbiacum (North Rhine-Westphalia). In: Gerhard Weber (Hrsg.): Archeology and Marketing. Contributions to the 3rd Cambodunum Symposium on October 9 and 10, 1998 . Verlag für Heimatpflege, Kempten 2001, p. 36, ISBN 3-88019-029-1 .
Web links
Coordinates: 50 ° 41 ′ 25.5 ″ N , 6 ° 38 ′ 52.1 ″ E