The interest in this era is huge. However, the picture that the entertainment industry paints of that distant time is riddled with clichés. The Burg.Museums.Bayern network now wants to convey a more realistic picture of the Middle Ages.
There are many clichéd ideas about life in the Middle Ages. How it really was in detail is usually beyond our knowledge. Only rarely are the sources as plentiful as, for example, for the Landshut Wedding of 1475, from which we even know that 285 scalding pigs from Burghausen were eaten there. But not only the Landshut Wedding inspires people as a festival to this day. Blockbuster films like “Robin Hood” (2018), Netflix series like “Vikings” (2013-2020) and video game classics like “Age of Empires” (1997-2023) show that the Middle Ages lavishly nourished the entertainment industry.
It is obvious that such fantasy images shape the historical understanding of many people. Many a medieval strategy game tries to be historically accurate, but still: “Fiction overwrites reality,” as the Burg.Museen.Bayern network complains. Museums of national importance in castles and fortresses in Burghausen, Coburg, Landshut, Passau and Würzburg have joined forces in the network.
In order to sharpen perception, the network now invites you to rediscover the Middle Ages and the Renaissance along with their works of art, cultural achievements and scientific advances. Especially in the castles and fortifications, landscape and history, art and lifestyle come together closely.
In terms of content, the museums take up the theme of the Middle Ages with different focal points. These range from castle building to everyday life in the castle and the beliefs of that time to the art of Lucas Cranach the Elder. Ä. and a Tilman Riemenschneider in Würzburg or to the Kunst- und Wunderkammer, as can be found at Trausnitz Castle. The fortifications of Veste Coburg and Veste Oberhaus above Passau show how castles had to be constantly rebuilt if they wanted to withstand the developments in weapons and war technology.
Until May 20th, a small exhibition at the Munich Infopoint Museums & Castles in Bavaria (Alter Hof 1) will serve as a kind of portal to the castles and museums mentioned, where this year a variety of events will give vivid and touching insights into life in the Middle Ages.