Museum im Naturparkzentrum Teufelsschlucht
Ernzen
The German-Luxembourg Nature Park, the formation of the bizarre sandstone rock landscape around the Devil's Gorge and the history of settlement in the region since the Stone Age are the themes of the small museum in the Nature Park Center.
Using landscape models, diagrams and objects such as rock samples and fossils, visitors can find out how natural monuments such as the Devil' s Gorge and the Irrel Waterfalls were formed or what the rare illuminated moss or the fossils known as "devil's claws" (Gryphaea arcuata, an extinct species of mussel) in the Devil's Gorge are all about.
The archaeological exhibition with many original finds focuses on the Stone Age. There are hands-on stations with a stone drill like in the Neolithic Age and the opportunity to grind your own stone. Children and adults can also immerse themselves in the world of the early hunters and gatherers in a replica of an Ice Age hunter's tent. Life in the Bronze and Iron Ages, the Gallo-Roman period and the Middle Ages are also explained using objects and panels. A remarkable exhibit is the model of the Roman villa of Holsthum with pewter figures, built in a project lasting several months by schoolchildren together with the historian and pewter figure collector Klaus Gerteis.
Tip: The museum is a stop on the trilingual Teufelsschlucht audio tour, which can be downloaded to your smartphone free of charge using the "Lauschtour App". The audio tour conveys exciting facts in an entertaining way - definitely worth listening to!
Attached to the museum is the House of Hunting of the Rhineland-Palatinate Hunting Association, which focuses in particular on the history of hunting and local wildlife.
