Pater and I stopped off for a few hours in beautiful Aachen also known as the chosen capitol city of Charlemagne! It’s a lovely spot and was rebuilt after a fire in the 1660’s and still has medieval charm.
Centre Charlemagne – Neues Stadtmuseum Aachen
The museum is very new and is part of an EU initiative to bring Europe together. Charlemange ruled the Franks who lived in what is now France and Germany. His Carolingian dynasty led to the foundations of the Holy Roman Empire.
It is new and so so beautiful! The museum has fun interactives, great lighting, well presented collection, and cohesive interpretation that tells the story of Aachen as a place and as an idea.
I adored this amazing timeline that was up on the wall. It followed the path of Aachen, helping to situate the objects into the chronological narrative. So great! I love a good timeline.
The roman origins have a nice bit and discuss Aachen’s hot springs which drew them there. Notice the display about the chapel is in the SHAPE OF THE CHAPEL! So flipping clever!
My favourite was this model of the chapel in Aachen. It shows which bits were built when and by whom. The floor has the floorplan / map of medieval Aachen to show how everything came together.
The museum brought us up to modern day and had film clips we could watch, and music to listen to. So fantastic!
If I was designing a museum I would honestly make it a lot like this one!
Rating 5/5
Pros: Great overall narrative, fun interactives, great collection, good displays, nice size, kind staff, lovely cafe on the square, commission artworks, stunning video artworks
Cons: Nobody else was there! SO sad honestly. Shop was rather blah
Liberté (formerly) of London 