For tour operators

Welcome to the past

The journey through time in the LVR open-air museum in Kommern in the Eifel takes you 500 years into the past. One of the largest museums of its kind in all of Europe transports visitors right into the world of our ancestors. In 77 historic buildings, including farms, workshops, windmills and watermills, you can experience up close how people in the Rhineland once lived and worked. It's as if time has stood still. The smell of freshly baked bread fills your nostrils. Geese and chickens run excitedly over the cobblestones. Mousetrap peddler Regine "Jien" Braconnier loudly touts her wares. The loud banging of the hammer on the anvil comes from the forge. Welcome to the past. Welcome to the open-air museum in Kommern.

Smoke houses and half-timbered buildings

Throughout the year, visitors can gain an insight into village life in the former Prussian Rhine Province. Various projects and action days offer the opportunity to take part yourself. A total of 77 historic houses and stables were dismantled in the Rhineland and rebuilt on the 100-hectare museum site. Simple smokehouses without a smoke outlet, as was typical in the Westerwald in the 16th century. Half-timbered buildings from the northern Eifel. But also courtyards and stables where people on the Lower Rhine and in the Bergisch region lived under one roof with pigs, horses and chickens. Strolling through the villages and hamlets, fields and orchards, visitors also encounter "real" people from the past, such as for example the nun Clara Fey, who once looked after poor children who were left behind, or the farmer Anna Ippendorf. At regular events such as "After the Harvest", "Krautwischtag" or "Advent for all the Senses", she vividly reports on cooking on an open fire, spinning on the spinning wheel and tedious gardening. It is only a few steps away from everyday village life until the recent past. On the narrow streets of the small town of Rhenania, visitors stroll through time from the French occupation through the German Empire to the post-war period. From here you can get to the Rhineland market square, which brings the 1950s to 1990s back to life. Some visitors will still remember it. For example the prefabricated house from the Quelle catalogue, the first bungalows and the emergency telephone, also known as the "Iron Policeman". But also an old air raid shelter, Nissen huts, which served as accommodation for numerous families who had been bombed out, and a temporary home for refugees, a container from 1991, can be visited. A special highlight is the "Zeitblende", which brings back the feeling of 50 years ago in front of a suitable backdrop. Visitors are invited to immerse themselves in their own personal memories and to let their own past come to life.

An exciting journey into the past

Overnight tip: Boutique Hotel Marielle , Bad Münstereifel