1000 years ago

To mark the 1000th anniversary of the death of Emperor Henry II, the city and diocese of Bamberg will celebrate the Henry Jubilee in 2024. One of the highlights of the programme for this year is the exhibition "1000 years ago" at the Historisches Museum Bamberg (Bamberg Historical Museum) in the Alte Hofhaltung. The special exhibition does not focus exclusively on the emperor, but also on his wife Kunigunde and the people around her.

The Historisches Museum Bamberg (Bamberg Historical Museum) invites you to travel back in time to the year 1024. Visitors experience everyday life in the imperial palace as well as in the city, in the monasteries and in the countryside. The exhibition offers an insight into the reign, military campaigns and court life of Empress Kunigunde and Emperor Henry II, whose influence was of fundamental importance for Bamberg.

However, it is particularly fascinating to view these and other central themes from the perspective of the general population. Who lived in Bamberg 1000 years ago and how did people live back then? What clothes did people wear and how did they spend their days? What room for manoeuvre did women have at that time? Many myths about the Middle Ages are scrutinised: did people really bathe so rarely? Did they spend their whole lives in the same village or did they travel occasionally?

Scenographic stagings and digital applications bring the period around 1000 to life. Visitors should not read about what happened in which year, but experience how people lived a millennium ago. Numerous hands-on activities offer the chance to feel the texture of medieval clothing or the weight of the armour of the time.

There are few eras about which there are as many misconceptions as there are about the Middle Ages. The museums of the city of Bamberg would like to contribute to establishing a more historically sound image of the time around 1000 with their exhibition in the Heinrichsjahr 2024.

Last edited on 11.02.2025