Museum (Former Dormitory) @museum.de

M 1: This was where the canons used to bed down for the night. What was once the monastery’s dormitory now houses the museum. In the Middle Ages, this was a communal space, where the canons slept. Later, the dormitory was divided into modestly furnished bedchambers. After the dissolution of the monastery, this area served as a granary for quite some time. However, in the late 20th century, the erstwhile dormitory space was restored to its original size to host the museum.

F 2: The exhibition reaches far back into the history of the village and the collegiate chapter with a great many documents and objects. It begins in the period before the monastery was founded, when there was a Slavic settlement in Jerichow. For example, there’s the large sword, discovered during excavations on the Burgberg, or castle hill – the part of the town that predates the founding of the monastery.

M 1: There’s a type of building material that’s not only characteristic of Jerichow Monastery itself, but also spread from here throughout the whole of northern Germany, and that’s brick. Here in the museum, you can find out how this technology was imported from the Mediterranean region and became established in this country.

F 2: The Premonstratensian Order started building Jerichow from the middle of the 12th century onwards. For a period of roughly four centuries, the order played its part in enabling the land along the River Elbe to flourish both agriculturally and culturally. And yet hardly any documents have survived from Jerichow’s monastic period. Which makes one particular discovery all the more important. The find in question is an official document issued by a law officer called Johann von Buch. It dates to 1336 and outlines the legal circumstances in Jerichow at that time. It also reports on a devastating flood during that period.

M 1: The museum makes the history of Jerichow real enough to touch – in every sense of the word. There’s a reconstruction of a medieval scriptorium or writing room, where you’ll find a "Living Book". This is actually a multimedia object, but you can turn its pages as you would those of a traditional printed book, while also viewing a series of animated scenes that allow you to experience Jerichow Monastery in medieval times in a completely new and different way.