Experience the Garden with all Your Senses
Welcome! You enter our mysterious treasure chamber in the former orphan boys' dormitory in the Historic Orphanage. In the first mansard roof in the region, the whole world fits into one room. For 300 years ago, more than 3,000 wondrous and curious objects from near and far were gathered together to teach the children of the school town about the infinite variety of divine creation. All kinds of oddities can be discovered here: a mouse embryo as well as a tattooed fish or the rib of a whale, a fossilised Hungarian cheese and even a Chinese lady's shoe. A mighty Nile crocodile hangs from the ceiling, stuffed with straw, as was customary at the time the collection was created. The objects are arranged in cabinets whose splendid painting is reminiscent of Arcimboldo. Shells, animals or rocks can thus be found very quickly in the collection.
Even today, our cabinet of curiosities amazes young and old. It is considered the only completely preserved Baroque cabinet of curiosities in Germany and shows unchanged the original museum concept of the 18th century. At that time, all areas of life and all fields of knowledge were considered in context for the first time. The natural history collection follows the pioneering approaches of Carl von Linné, whose systematisation paved the way for modern biology. The naturalia are juxtaposed with the extensive art collection, whose artefacts from India and America reflect the impressive cosmopolitanism of the Halle orphanage.
As the only European Cabinet of Artefacts and Natural Curiosities of the Baroque period, the Francke Foundations' collection has been completely preserved and can still be visited today in its authentic location and with its historical furnishings. »The uniqueness of the Cabinet of Artefacts and Natural Curiosities of the Francke Foundations lies in the fact that all the basic components of the original Baroque Cabinet of Curiosities have been preserved: more than 3,000 objects from the fields of art and life, the perfectly fitting collection cabinets of the chamber with their impressive colourful crown paintings, the original room in the former dormitory of the Historical Orphanage as well as the museum-theoretical concept of presentation based on the 18th century catalogues,« explains the Director of the Francke Foundations Prof. Dr. Thomas Müller-Bahlke. On 12 October 1995, he, as archivist and historian, was able to reopen the Cabinet in its original location after extensive research of sources.
