Muse­ums and exhi­bi­tions in the Lusa­t­ian Lake­land

The many muse­ums in the Lusa­t­ian Lake­land invite vis­i­tors to explore the region’s his­tory. Among them is the Lusa­t­ian Min­ing Museum – Knap­pen­rode Energy Fac­tory. Step­ping into the fac­tory build­ings feels like trav­el­ling back to Ger­many’s indus­trial hey­day in the 19th cen­tury. The smell of freshly pressed coal bri­quettes lingers in the air. The museum houses an almost com­plete chrono­log­i­cal col­lec­tion of his­tor­i­cal bri­quette-mak­ing tech­nol­ogy that is unique in Europe. In addi­tion to this exten­sive dis­play, there are more than a dozen other exhi­bi­tion spaces and inter­ac­tive areas.

The his­tor­i­cal res­i­dences at Sen­ften­berg, Hoy­er­swerda and Sprem­berg have been turned into muse­ums. The 400-year-old Sen­ften­berg Fortress offers fas­ci­nat­ing insights into the his­tory of Lusa­tia. The exhi­bi­tions are var­ied and cover sub­jects rang­ing from wine-mak­ing tra­di­tions in and around the town to min­ing as an indus­try that shaped the region. The palace build­ing also houses the Lusa­tia art col­lec­tion, which com­prises paint­ings, prints and sculp­tures by artists from the region. Ernst Bar­lach’s sculp­ture of a beg­gar, mounted on a brick plinth in the palace court­yard, is a par­tic­u­lar high­light. A new exhi­bi­tion at the fortress takes you on a fas­ci­nat­ing jour­ney through the his­tory of lig­nite min­ing in Lusa­tia and the region’s trans­for­ma­tion into what is now the Lusa­t­ian Lake­land.

In Lauch­ham­mer, a town famous for orna­men­tal cast­ing, a for­mer ware­house now serves as an exhi­bi­tion space. On dis­play is an exten­sive col­lec­tion of tem­plates and mod­els that were used to cast sculp­tures and mon­u­ments as well as orna­men­tal cast-iron objects of every­day use.