Go Historic

Thursday was a rainy day but we felt like going somewhere and taking pictures, so we drove into Bonn to check out the Rheinisches Landesmuseum Bonn (Rhineland Regional Museum). It was FAN-TASTIC.

bonn museum — Here's some goofball munching on a pretzel outside the museum and apparently staring at a garbage can. Actually, it's a historical marker about the medieval pilgrimage to Santiago that passed this way.

The museum is in a very modern, brightly-lit building (opened in 2003) and focuses exclusively on local exhibits from all time periods, which are divided into themes.

One nice surprise is that their most extensive collection was in the religious-history theme! Hooray! There were ancient Germanic burial monuments, bunches of Roman altars and gravestones, several Early Christian gravestones carved with the Chi Rho, wonderful Romanesque carvings from Cologne churches, paintings... I was in heaven. David also enjoyed the stuff, but especially had a great time taking lots of pictures!

From Many Gods to One God, Rheinisches Landesmuseum, Bonn, Germany — The title of the religion section. Sadly this was pretty much the only bilingual sign in the museum.

I spent a couple days after our visit attempting to translate the German museum labels in order to caption our photos. It was a bit of a tedious process, but of course I was interested to learn about all the great stuff anyway. I still have a good hundred more photos to work through!

Some highlights:

Three Magi - Gustorf Choir Screen, c.1150 — Three Magi from a Romanesque choir screen near Cologne (c.1150)

Sun God and Zodiac Mosaic, Bonn, Germany — An impressive floor mosaic from a 3rd-century Roman villa. In the center is the sun god (who was especially popular in this period) with his chariot, surrounded by the signs of the zodiac.

Zodiac Reliefs from Brauweiler, Bonn, Germany

Aquarius, *Wasserman* from Brauweiler, Bonn, Germany

Cancer, *Krebs* Sculpture from Brauweiler, Bonn, Germany

A rare (in Germany) and wonderful depiction of the signs of the zodiac, which decorated a lot of medieval churches in France. Above are Aquarius and Cancer. Note that Cancer doesn't look much like a crab - medieval Scorpios rarely look realistic either. Both tend to look more like lobsters.

Chi Rho on Gravestone of Rignedrudis, 6th cent. — Chi Rho (first two letters of "Christ" in Greek) on a beautifully carved gravestone from the 6th century.

Gravestone of Meteriola, Rheinisches Landesmuseum Bonn — A Christian gravestone of the 5th century. The deceased's loved ones clearly didn't have the money for a professional engraver like the one above.

Statue of St. Ottilie, Rheinisches Landesmuseum Bonn — Eyeballs! This is St. Ottilie, who was born blind but healed through baptism, and is the patron saint of eye diseases.

Moselkern Stele, Rheinisches Landesmuseum Bonn — A rather mysterious stele from the 7th century, which seems to show a figure holding Christ's hands at the Crucifixion

Madonna and Child Sculpture — a pretty Madonna and Child

*Last Judgment Triptych* by Jan Mostaert, c. 1514 — A fairly innocuous-looking painting of a rich family, but if you walk up to it and look close...

The Damned, *Last Judgment Triptych* by by Jan Mostaert — ...there are some interesting details! As you might guess, these are the unlucky ones at the Last Judgment.

Detail, Grave Mosaic of Abbot Gilbert, Rheinisches Landesmuseum — A happier scene to end on: the mosaic gravestone of a friendly-looking Abbot Gilbert, first abbot of Maria Laach.

After the museum we stopped briefly in the Bonn Münster to try out the new lens in its very dark interior.

It did well.

Then we picked up some groceries in our new favorite store in the Galeria basement, and I took a picture of sausages.

I also got a better picture of a Frauenplatz sign in the parking garage:

reserved for women — I have since learned that these spots are for women driving without a man along, and the purpose is to keep them safe by walking only short distances in well-lit areas. Germany rules!

For dinner that night we had fresh seafood cooked in our heart-shaped pie pan. The scallops were especially divine! I never knew I liked those until I met David.

It was a really good day.

A Great Day Out in Bonn posted January 29, 2008 by Holly Hayes