Stralsund's Cultural History Museum

Unfortunately, I don't have any pictures of the building that houses the cultural history museum-it's a beautiful old convent.  However, here are some of my favorite things from the collection.  I may do a post later that's just weapons.  I tried to photograph all of the interesting ones for Geoff, and there are a LOT.

Meanwhile, here's a reproduction of the seal of Stralsund.  In the Middle Ages, it was used to validate legal documents.

The museum had a fairly significant collection of seals.  I studied medieval history while I was in Austria, with a focus on research methods and legal documents, so seals have a special place in my heart.  I do tend to like pre-technology technology in general.

This is typical of the Middle Ages-a document with wax seals from multiple legal entities.  I love the way they look.

There were also some amazing carvings.  Note the monkey near the bottom.

I also was fascinated with the detail on this flower.

This is a reproduction of the treasure of Hiddensee.  (I'm not sure where the original is, and I really want to find out.)  The treasure is within the museum system somewhere.  Being gold and ancient, it's so valuable that it's not surpising the original is somewhere else.

While the first section of the museum focused on life in and around the cloister, the second is a trip through the centuries in Stralsund.  The second floor (first, in the European system) is set up as a series of living rooms, each coming closer to the present.  There are military and economic displays as well.

These are weights used in trading and making coins.  As I mentioned, I'm fascinated by technology that functions based on the most simple principles.

I also loved this fantasy globe.

Can you imagine actually using such a delicate gun?

I enjoy portraits that tell a story.  In this case, the story of a woman with a secret.

Or a couple in love.

I didn't realize until I saw the pieces that the museum has two works by Caspar David Friedrich!  There's this sketch, which doesn't particularly appeal to me.

And this painting, which does.  Unfortunately, it was in a low quality plastic case, and the reflection is pretty bad.

But you can still see the qualitities that I love in his work: a beautiful sense of light, and profound emotion.

The museum has a klein-aber-fein ("small but good", a favorite saying of one of my WWU professors) collection of Jugendstil pieces.

The last floor of the museum is dedicated to special exhibits.  At the time of my visit, it was the museum's collection of portraits.  This turned out to be fascinating precisely because they are the pieces that usually kept in storage, lacking both historical and monetary value.  When was the last time you saw a badly painted picture in a museum?

For example, this gentleman.   Note the classiness of his name across the bottom.

Of course, many of the pictures were extremely well painted, such as this lady, who has received a letter and gazes at a picture of the author.

Her expression fascinates me.

Lastly, an ancient map.  Here you see the island of Rügen.

I took so many more pictures, but those were my favorites.  Up next time: the rest of the adventure!