Town History @museum.de

At the end of our tour, we’re going to dive right back into Emmerich town history. Please start at the front, on your left, with the archaeological finds from antiquity, then continue along the glass cases in a clockwise direction.

In no time at all, you’ll have arrived in the Middle Ages and find yourself looking at a facsimile of the charter from 1233 that granted Emmerich town status. Thanks to its convenient location on the bank of the Rhine, Emmerich was one of the Hanseatic league towns during the High Middle Ages. As a prosperous town, it was fortified with a rampart, a fosse, or ditch, and a parapet – as the model of the Löwentor – the Lion Gate – shows.

At the back of the room, an impressive model shows the town in the year 1667. The fortifications and the historic town centre with the two large churches of Saint Aldegundis and Saint Martin are clearly visible.

Today, three and a half centuries later, not much of the original fortifications has survived. On the 7th of October 1944, allied bombers destroyed 97 per cent of the town. But after the end of the war, Emmerich was rebuilt and has enjoyed a new lease of life. Today, it is a flourishing industrial and logistics location at the very heart of Europe.

And this brings our tour of the Rheinmuseum Emmerich to an end. We hope you’ve enjoyed it and would be delighted to welcome you again – please visit us again soon. Perhaps for one of our regular temporary exhibitions, which are always held in the first room on the ground floor. We’d be happy to keep you updated.

For today, we’ll just say: thank you for listening and goodbye!