City Museum Fembohaus

Merchant's House and Museum

After a building period of three years, the City Museum Fembohaus opened again in 2000. The house was completely refurbished, and a new concept was devised and realised for the display of the city's history.

Nuremberg's representative merchant's house from around 1600 comprises a main building, a back building and a connecting building, as well as a historic courtyard, and has an exhibition space of about 1500 square metres. Visitors are invited on a unique journey through the city's history, via 26 completely redesigned museum rooms, a new exhibition forum and the large Nuremberg multivision show Noricama.

Noricama
<http://www.museums.nuremberg.de/fembohaus/noricama.html>

The merchant Phillipp van Oyrl, who fled the Netherlands because of his (Protestant) faith, had the house built between 1591 and 1596. In the 17th century it was extended to become a splendid rich merchant's residence. Between 1735 and 1852, one of the most renowned print workshops for maps, the Homännische Landkartenoffizin, was housed here.

In the 19th century, Georg Christoph Franz Fembo, after whom the house was later named, bought the property which has been owned by the City of Nuremberg since 1928.

While the main building remained almost undamaged by the air raids of World War II, several other parts of the property suffered severe damage and had to be rebuilt.

Since 1953/58, the Fembohaus has been the City Museum. In its situation on Burgstraße between Main Market Square, City Hall and Imperial Castle, the house is visible from afar.

The Ball Room

The former ball room on the third floor of the connecting building was created in 1668. It displays a coffered ceiling consisting of 10 panels painted by an unknown master, with motifs from Ovid's famous "Metamorphoses'", based on a series of copperplate engravings by Dutch artist, Hendrik Goltzius (1558-1617).

Three former residents of the house have returned and in the audio play "Dance of the Generations" tell visitors about their lives in this house: Phillipp van Oyrl, Maria Sabina Behaim and Georg Christoph Franz Fembo.

Audio Play
Dance of the Generations Through Time
10 minutes
German/ English

The Family Hall

The panelled hall on the second floor dates back to the time around 1600 and is Nuremberg's oldest surviving family hall.

The pièce de résistance of the Fembohaus is an example of the life style in Nuremberg at the beginning of the 17th century. The splendidly furnished room with its large coffered ceiling and the other rooms on the second floor were only used for functions - for family celebrations as well as receptions for guests.

The living quarters proper were located below, on the first floor. Small rooms and servants' quarters were to be found on the top floor as well as in the connecting building and in the back building.

Nuremberg Kitchen

In the kitchen of a rich Nuremberg merchant's house, a cook and several kitchen maids worked under the strict supervision of the mistress of the house.

This is where the cooking was done, but foodstuffs were produced and preserved here, too. Slaughtered animals were dressed, meat was portioned, butter and cheeses as well as soap and candles were produced. For storage purposes, foodstuffs were smoked, pickled or salted, sausages and hams were hung in the chimney flues to be cured.

Since a lot of strong spices were used in the rich merchants' households, expensive exotic spices such as pepper, cardamom, cinnamon, saffron and ginger were very popular.

The kitchen on the third floor dates back to the 17th/ 18th century. Visitors may also find out about Nuremberg specialities and recipes here.

Baroque Stucco Ceiling

The large ceiling on the second floor of Fembohaus is Nuremberg's most impressive Baroque stucco ceiling. It was created in 1674 by the Italian stucco artist Carlo Moretti Brentano (around 1630-1684), from gypsum, sand and soured milk.

Love and friendship are symbolised in the two main panels. The figures in the corners represent the four seasons.

An extensive appreciation of the work, the artist and the technique is given.

The Work of the Stucco Artist

In 1734, Italian stucco artist, Donato Polli (1663-1738) created the decorations for three rooms on the first floor of Fembohaus in late Baroque and early Roccoco style.

Johann Georg Ebersberger (1704-1760) who commissioned the elegantly wrought work bought the house in 1734, together with Johann Michael Franz (1700-1761), and moved into the first floor rooms newly decorated by Polli. The artist created some of Nuremberg's most beautiful late Baroque rooms.

To match the house's building phases, a 20-minute audio programme offers music composed by Nuremberg masters of three centuries.

Homann's Map Printing Workshop

In the 18th century, Homann's Map Printing Workshop counted among Europe's most important map printers. Homann's maps were in great demand from travellers, explorers and merchants all over the world.

The publishing company, established by Johann Baptist Homann (1664-1724) in 1702, had its premises in Fembohaus between 1735 and 1852.

By the middle of the 18th century, Johann Michael Franz (1700-1761), Johann Georg Ebersberger (1704-1760) and astronomer Tobias Mayer (1723-1762) had made the printing workshop one of the leading map publishers. The introduction of astronomic bearings made Homann's maps more precise than French and Dutch maps. The best maps of the moon and stars, the first atlases as well as the most precise map of Germany of its time were printed here. The most important maps are displayed and explained in detail.