A journey into the past

The Freilichtmuseum in Kommern is a wonderful open air exhibition that gives you the chance to step back in time and experience village life around the Rhine region in bygone times. The museum founders have rescued buildings destined for destruction, relocated and rebuilt them in a gorgeous forest setting. The whole museum sits in an area of natural woodland interspersed with pastures and glades filled with wild flowers. There are farm buildings, windmills, a water mill and a huge variety of houses and cottages, stables and barns and even a manor house, all painstakingly reconstructed in their new setting. When you arrive at the car park the first thing you see is a huge wooden structure that looks like a reject from the movie Wicker Man. A little daunting at first, but it turns out to be a signal tower. Theses amazing structures used to adorn the surrounding hills and relay messages to neighboring villages using signals. Once you’ve walked up the winding path you arrive at the visitor centre. Pay for your ticket and your journey into the past starts as soon as you step out the back door. The path leads you through villages from different areas of the Rhine region, from Bergisches land to Rhinelandpflaz to the Eifel. Each ‘village’ features houses and cottages you can step inside and see how people used to live centuries ago. Be amazed by the tiny doorways and windows, the dimness of the downstairs rooms and the fact that in most of the cottages, the animals lived either right next door or under the same roof. The museum tries to bring aspects of village life alive with bread baking, sheep shearing and many other activities taking place throughout the year.
 
Once you’ve taken the hour long walk through the various villages, pastures and woodlands, you’ll come to the exhibition halls where there is currently a rather startling walk-though exhibition of the Rhineland through the ages. ‘Wir Rheinlander’ starts off with the French invasion, through to the first and second world wars, complete with life sized wax models, a first world war battle scene and rather disturbing Nazi propaganda posters. Lastly, a tour of the gift shop and some of their must-have mead and home made jam. Your journey to the present begins as you walk back down the hill to the car park. As you look back all you’ll see is the winding path leading to the modern visitor centre, not a glimpse of magical land that lies beyond. The Freilichtmuseum is a piece of the past intact in the Eifel and I for one will be going back very soon.
 
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