Fembohaus

Description

In the historic centre of the Sebalder Altstadt, the Stadtmuseum Fembohaus presents the Nürnberg city history spanning almost a millennium. The museum uses the representative merchant’s house of the late Renaissance, the only large building of its kind preserved in Nürnberg, for a contemporary, context-oriented presentation of urban development. It is part of the network of the city of Nürnberg’s museums.

The house was erected at the end of the 16th century for the merchant Philipp van Oyrl and served as the family home and headquarters for the trading firm. In the 17th century the building received a Baroque fit-out; particularly striking is the ceiling from 1674, characterised by Italian stucco. In the 18th century the property became the seat of an important map-printing workshop (Homännische Offizin). In the 19th century portions of the ownership passed to the family after whom the house is now named. The city acquired the building in 1928. The front house largely survived the Second World War; the rear and intermediate wings were rebuilt, and in 1953 the municipal history museum opened here. A comprehensive renovation and reconceptualisation took place between 1996 and 2000; in 2016 a new permanent exhibition was installed in the historic courtyard.

The permanent exhibition pairs a large, sound-producing city model as an introduction with thematically organised sections on the Kaiserzeit, crafts, council, trade and everyday life. Representative domestic rooms such as the Familiensaal around 1600 and the magnificent Baroque stucco ceiling sit alongside historical views of the city, collection pieces of Homännische cartography and objects from the fields of art and music. Special exhibits include the monumental banquet painting, the Schöne Zimmer from the Pellerhaus with its coffered ceiling, and the Renaissance Apollo fountain cast in brass.

The south-facing façade displays a Sandsteinchörlein from 1680 and richly ornamented gables; a three-storey central block with wooden galleries connects the front and rear buildings. As a largely intact bourgeois-house ensemble, the Fembohaus offers not only exhibition rooms but itself stands as a significant testimony to Nürnberger building and residential culture.